I was fortunate to be able to attend The 2017 Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan this spring. I have been one other time but that particular year the tulips hadn’t even begun to bloom.
I was rewarded with beautiful tulips and daffodils this year at the festival, among many other types of flowers.
The lovely purple tulips above were some of the last I was able to see that day as the sun got lower in the sky.
The images below give you some idea of the abundance of tulips and wonderful color there at the Tulip Festival!
“Daffodil Tripartite In Sunlight” Just lovely little daffodils set against brightly colored tulips at The 2017 Tulip Festival in Holland, MI.
“Tulips in Rows” Beautiful rows of tulips with trees and flags in the background at The Tulip Festival.
“Tulip Festival Holland” Enjoying all of the many varieties of tulips at The 2017 Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan!
I really love the bright and vivid colors that spring and summer bring to the garden! These photographs are from warm weather times, which I can’t wait to see again soon!
I’m not one to shy away from photographing vibrant colored flowers, or autumn leaves either, as you all may know!
I know the names of the orange and purple flowers, but I wasn’t able to ID the deep fuchsia flowers above. If anyone knows the name, please feel free to let me know.
“Orange Excitement” All the shades of orange burst through in this summertime photograph of Butterfly Weed!
Last summer we had loads of Butterfly Weed. I used to love to sit in the garden near it watching both bees and butterflies take advantage of all that it has to offer.
“Purple Veronica” Lovely hues of purple and green in this patch of Purple Veronica!
The Purple Veronica was also prolific! There were so many patches of it growing in the garden. I love the form and shape as well as the different hues of purple!
Finally, I’ll leave you today with a flower quote:
The title of this post might seem a bit strange when you see this first photograph of some beautiful yet very simple leaves on a row of plants. In fact, I have no idea what these plants are.
I had originally gone out looking for some late summer flowers. Unfortunately it turned out to be a pretty windy day. The few flowers that I found weren’t very cooperative in the wind.
As I went around to the other side the garden I found rows of these leaves. They had a really nice flow to them. My first inclination, after making one simple photograph was to do a long exposure and have a nice motion blur effect. I made three photographs using different exposures.
My favorite out of the ones I made was the second image you’ll see here. It had just the right silky flow that I envisioned in my mind.
Please scroll down to see that image and also the image that gave me the idea for the title to this post.
These are beautiful leaves by themselves with a nice flow.
“Long Leaves”
In this image I used a slightly longer exposure to blur the motion and give it a soft, silky, and flowing feel.
“Ride the Wind”
What I did in this next image is a different story altogether.
“Crystal Plumage”
After I had processed the previous photograph in Lightroom, I decided to reprocess it again in Lightroom for a totally different effect.
I played around with solarization a bit, which I have done many times before with certain types of plants, especially succulents and cactus. However I almost always process these in monochrome. This time as I was trying out the different colors and effects, I found that I really liked the way the blur of leaves took on a look of bird plumage! Maybe some exotic bird from a far away location! The colors are of course totally unlike the original, but to me they looked like Crystal Plumage!
So if you are a Lightroom user, but haven’t yet tried out the solarization panel, I advise you to give it a try for something really fun and different!
I always enjoy a beautiful sunrise or sunset, especially over a body of water. The clouds and colorful hues are reflected on the surface making it absolutely glorious! Scroll down to see two sunset and one sunrise image from this summer on two of the Great Lakes.
I’ve also included several quotes on the topic of sunrise and sunset. Enjoy!
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”
~ Rabindranath Tagore ~
“When the sun has set, no candle can replace it.”
~ George R.R. Martin ~
“Spectacular Sunset” An amazing sunset on glassy waters of Lake Michigan!
“There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.”
~ Jo Walton ~
“Sunrise paints the sky with pinks and the sunset with peaches. Cool to warm. So is the progression from childhood to old age.”
~ Vera Nazarian ~
“Dawn’s First Light” A Soothing and peaceful sunrise on Lake Huron!
“The blue of daylight
fades and chills as the sun sinks
beneath clouds of fire.”
~ Richelle E. Goodrich ~
“The sunset was a splendid display. I wondered if it was showing off for my benefit or if it was often that spectacular. Rarely had I seen such a gorgeous scene; the riotous colors flamed out over the sky in shades that I had no words to describe. Birds sang their last songs of the day before tucking in for the night, and still the darkness hung back. Now, I thought, I understand the word “twilight.” It was created for just this time – in this land.”
~ Janette Oke ~
“Magnificent Sunset” Another gorgeous sunset from Lake Michigan in the Upper Peninsula!
“But even the longest day wears to sunset.”
~ Marion Zimmer Bradley ~
These images speak for themselves. What more can me said about gorgeous morning sunlight! Pure happiness!
“Sun Drenched Orchids” Wonderful morning sunlight illuminates these lovely purple orchids!“Morning When I Rise” Gorgeous and golden marigold in the beauty of the rising sun!“Song of Light” A bokeh delight in the fresh summer grass!
Have you ever gone out to a specific location just to capture a sunset? Hoping to get a spectacular one? It can give you a range of feelings. From those of beautiful anticipation, just knowing it’s going to be a good one, to that of frustration and disappointment as the conditions just aren’t what you need for that moment.
In this location here on the shores of Lake Michigan, I had hoped for beautiful clouds, or just a little something besides total clear uneventful skies on several different evenings.
For three days up until this one, I had gone to the beach on one of the southern areas of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula about 30 miles from St. Ignace. I waited in the very bright sunlight of late afternoon just hoping for something wonderful to happen. Something magical!
On my last day in the area as I drove along the shore I could see a bit of hazy wispy clouds starting to form along the horizon. This really got my attention and hopes up!
After arriving at a certain stretch of beach, I set up my tripod and camera, dialed in the settings, and set the focus. I positioned myself on the wonderful warm sand and used a remote cable release to take a few images as I drank in the pure beauty, amazing colors and hues in front of me.
This isn’t a sunset to end all sunset’s by any means, but it was beautiful without being fussy. It was relaxing for me and not hurried. It was a joy to experience, not just photograph.
I stayed long after the sun had actually gone down, not only to capture all of the vibrant hues on camera. I allowed myself to really take the time to enjoy the last bits of color, to hear the sound of gentle waves, to feel the days warmth turn into the cool of night.
This was my moment of peace for that day!
I hope that you might find some beauty and serenity in this image also!
Recently on a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan I was taken by surprise at all of the ice still remaining on Lake Superior.
The weather on my second day there turned unseasonably warm, which happened to be the case the day I took this sunset.
On certain areas of Lake Superior you can only see ice in the far distance, in other places you are actually able to still stand on thick chunks that are floating around closer to the shore.
The day before I took this image the whole bay was a mass of floating icebergs, ranging in size from many feet wide to a few inches in width. The depth could also be 1-3 feet for those that I could see. I’m sure much larger for those in the middle of each of the Great Lakes.
I was really hoping to get some sunset images through the icebergs with loads of golden color. Well, that didn’t happen because on the next evening I arrived to find much of the ice that had been close to the shore previously, no longer there. The warm southern winds had blown it further out in the water. Only a few chunks remained close to where I was standing.
The temperatures that day had reached the upper 80’s with plenty of haze and humidity, as well as a ton of black flies and mosquitoes. Consequently the sunset was not quite what I had hoped for yet it was really colorful and quite long lasting.
This frame is one of the later ones from that night, towards the end of sunset. The colors were still strong at the time, and the ice fields visible in the distance. You can also notice a few smaller pieces of ice closer to the shore.
The funny thing to me was knowing that here in late May, there were still many remnants of this winters extremely cold weather all around me.
I’m sure that there will be ice somewhere on Lake Superior for another month or two!
Enjoy this extremely simple image, and view of color and ice in a time that you wouldn’t normally expect it!
Tonight’s post is going to be a quick one. I haven’t had much of a chance to get out and do anything outdoors recently with the weather we’ve been having this winter, plus I am still processing tons of last years images.
Several days ago after seeing some beautiful oil and water macro images done by Beverly Everson, I decided to do some messing around with it myself. Here is the link to Beverly’s initial image that inspired me, which is very beautiful!: http://www.eversonphotography.com/2014/02/oil-and-water/
I was lacking in some of the essential items, but I decided to do it anyway. I came out with this and a bevy of other abstracts. None of them were quite what I had hoped, but they have a beauty of their own.
I wanted to get this one up for those people who had requested it, and for those that are also messing around with oil and water too.
I’ll be doing more of these in the future, but first I need to find some very good glass baking dishes, not the ones I bake brownies in! 😉
This image speaks for itself, so my words will be few. This is one of the images from my series “Sunsets over Water”. When looking for a title, the first thing that popped into my mind was the first words in a song “In the cool of the evening” by Dusty Springfield.
Now the rest of the lyrics in that song seem in no way related to this serene image, as you may know. The evening though, when this was taken was COOL and peaceful.
So I just started singing this song, and the next thing you know. There’s the title!
Relax, gaze into this soothing sunset from Northern Michigan, and enjoy!!
This year has be an interesting one for me. I had the chance to do more travelling than usual, which gave me many more photographic opportunities. Sometimes though it’s the images you take that are close to home that you end up liking the best. Here are ten images mostly from the late summer through autumn that I like the best. I have many more that I could say the same for, but for the sake of brevity I will limit it to Ten. The images are in no particular order. Enjoy!
A stormy day on Lake Michigan at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore.Upper Tahquamenon Falls in early autumn. In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.A stormy windy day on Lake Michigan in the Upper Peninsula.Loving the beauty of early autumn on a scenic rural road in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.Beautiful reflections along an inland lake.Beautiful Arch Rock on Mackinac Island. Girls down below are writing messages with rocks.Shimmering sunrise on Lake Huron with Mackinac Island in silhouette.Gorgeous fall foliage on a beautiful winding rural road.Loving the rails on a stormy autumn day.Gazing across one lake, through fall foliage, over Lake Superior, and onto Canada.
After going through so many images, it was really difficult to decide, and had to leave out many that I would have liked to include. You can find links on this blog to my sites and where to view more images.
Best wishes to everyone, both now and in the coming year!!!
