Making do..

I was in Madison and had a bit of time.

 

I thought I would try for some color and headed back to the tulips.

 

 

 

And white bleeding hearts.

 

 

 

I noticed branches on a nearby maple tree low enough for me to photograph. I liked the greens with the dark background.

 

 

Trying for patterns and shapes.

 

 

 

 

A little lighter background. Then back to tulips and flowers.

 

 

 

Some yellow just to change things up. Then I noticed purple and blue pansy or violet type things close by.

 

 

They may be called violas. I'm not sure.

 

 

I liked the vibrant colors a lot.

 

 

 

 

 

As the sun was getting low on the horizon, I found a dandelion in seed.

 





 

 

 

 

 

After just a couple minutes I lost the light. So I put the camera away and drove to a nearby lake hoping for some reflections.

 

 

I was surprised when I found some.

 

 

 

The color I hoped for, never came. So I did what I could with the ten minutes I had and then called it a day.



More flowers....

I made quite a few images of tulips yesterday so I'm just gonna put a bunch right here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was good practice and I like all the color.

 

 

Flowers and a baby squirrel..

I normally don't photograph domestic flowers, but I had a couple of hours to wait for my son and there was a cemetery nearby. I drove through and saw lots of tulips and decided to try for some color.

 

The first flowers I worked with were red or orange. I tried using a 180mm macro and wasn't having much luck so I switched to a 18mm-200mm lens and things got better.

 

 

I was laying on the ground and shooting up, trying lots of different angles,

 

 

and working around the plants to find decent compositions.

 

 

 

I liked the yellow patterns at the base of these flowers.

 

 

The light changed after a bit and I moved to a different group of nearby flowers.

 

 

 

 

I was pleasantly surprised how the yellow petals popped against the blue sky.

 

 

 

It was sunny and 75 degrees and I paused to look at some of the images under the shade of a big pine tree. While I was standing there I heard a couple of crows about fifty yards away, they sounded a little too excited. I looked over and saw one crow on the ground and one on top of a tall headstone calling. The crow on the ground looked to be pecking at something. I ran towards them expecting to find a young robin or some other bird.

 

 

There wasn't a bird. There was a baby gray squirrel the crows had been menacing. The crows had flown when I ran over and were perched in nearby oak trees. I checked to see if the squirrel was injured. It wasn't bleeding and seemed ok.

 

 

I looked in nearby trees for it's nest or family and couldn't find it. The little squirrel was calling out, but no squirrels were answering. I thought it likely, that it lived in one of those trees and the crows had grabbed it, so I didn't want to take it anywhere. I did want to give it some protection from the crows and a fighting chance to live.

 

At the bottom of a nearby headstone were hostas, (a sort of thick sturdy plant) and I found some tree branches nearby. I encouraged the squirrel to move between the dense plants and the tombstone and then placed the sticks across the top of it as a barrier against the crows. Hopefully I created a safe spot for the squirrel to wait for its mom to come and get it. Then I went back to the flowers.

 

 

 

 

Soon it was time to go and pick up a kid. The squirrel thing was a little different, but I did capture lots of color.