Take it or "Leaf" it....

Today's challenge was to showcase the beauty of living foliage. Make a photo of a single leaf or and entire "greenscape".

Taking a walk in the garden this evening made me realize two things:

1) Fall is just around the corner. The garden was once filled with big , beautiful blooms and has now transformed into an area of dead, dried up foliage.

2) It's getting dark earlier these days and there is the nip of fall in the air which means it will soon be time to focus on indoor shots instead of outdoor (unless freezing your butt off in the middle of winter is your idea of fun).

I managed to capture this shot of a beautiful variegated coleus . I loved the jewel-like colours that really stood out in the dying garden. Sadly, time will soon be up for these beauties as you can see the leaves are starting to fade and wilt. *Sigh* How many more days left until summer begins again?

Mags.

Larger Than Life

Today's challenge was to make a bright, cheery photo outdoors.

This was a challenge since it was a craptacular overcast and drizzly day. I headed to the local community park to take photos of the bright, over-sized flowers and butterflies found in the water park area. Thankfully, the park was deserted and I was able to snap away without having parents think I'm some creeper takin' photos of their kids (sidenote: Does anyone else encounter this? How do you get around this? It seems to be a touchy subject and I'm not sure how to deal with it other than avoiding these areas.......but I digress). I loved how the bright orange colour in the flower and butterfly really stand out against the dull grey sky......I had a hard time choosing a photo and I decided to post some of the other contenders on my blog: http://magneticmags365.tumblr.com/ .

Mags.

Ornamental Orchids

Today's challenge was to make a photograph with soft light and to try to almost totally eliminate shadows on the subject.

I recently travelled to Costa Rica where I fell in love with the lush vegetation. Costa Rica has an astonishing number of plants, and people are drawn from all over the world to see the beautiful flowers that grow there. Of special interest to many are the numerous variety of Orchids. In fact, the National flower, Cattleya Skinneri (known locally as the "guaria morada" ), is a species of Orchid. 

The best time of the year for orchids in Costa Rica in the wild is just as the rainy season is starting up with the first scant rains. Many of the orchids in nature are triggered into their blooming cycle at that time. There are more than 1300 recognized species of orchids in Costa Rica. Some are small, some large, many are quite showy. Many have amazing scents or perfumes, along with a few that smell truly unpleasant. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Costa Rica, bring your nose along. You will be intrigued at the variety of odors the various orchid species can emit.

I purchased this unique hand-carved vase made of Mango wood in the small town of Lafortuna. Sadly, I couldn't bring a REAL orchid back with me so I just placed a "faux" one in the vase until a nice real one can be found.

Mags.

I Ain't Afraid Of No Ghost........

Today's challenge was to make a photograph with a shallow depth of field.

Taken from my garden, I focused in on a cluster of the red trumpet-like blooms found on my Ghost Weigela. Apparently I'm not the only one drawn to this plant. It appears that the fly perched on the bloom isn't afraid of a little "ghost" as well. 

A cool weigela with dark red flowers in spring and remarkable foliage that magically starts green then turns to a ghostly, iridescent butter yellow as the summer progresses. They provide seasons of colour and are a good rebloomer.

It’s a great impulse plant that easily adds season long color to any garden, container or landscape.

Mags.

With Deepest Sympathy

Sympathy can be difficult to express in words.Today's challenge was to make an image suitable for the cover of a condolence card.

Not feeling really energetic for a photo shoot today after last night's festivities, I decided to shoot the blooms on a Gerbera plant that was given to me as a gift. I wanted to try out the Macro feature on my new point and shoot that I purchased yesterday and followed up with some editing to soften the photo and tone down the bright hues.

Mags.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Today's theme was to make a photo of something growing in my garden or a neighbour's garden. I found this Rose of Sharon bush growing on the side of my neighbour's house and was intrigued by it's unusual stamen.

Rose of Sharon is a deciduous flowering shrub that has white, red, lavender or light blue blooms. These bushes, which prefer full sun, can grow 8' - 10' tall and 4' -6' wide. Although naturally a multi-stemmed bush, through pruning it can be trained to simply have one trunk; thus some people refer to it as a Rose of Sharon "tree". The main selling features of this gorgeous bush include it's attractive flowers and it's late blooming period (generally in August) thus giving the garden late summer colour when many other shrubs and flowers are way past their prime. They are also drought-resistant and can hold their own in the heat. This is definitely a plant I'm going to look into purchasing as an addition to my garden next year.

Mags.

Bold and Bodacious

July 26, 2010

What do I love most about Costa Rica? There are many things , but one of the things that tops my list are the pops of colours found amongst the lush green foliage. I'm not sure what the name of this colourful beauty is called but I loved the tiny multi-coloured blooms that make up this flower.

Mags.

Earwigs: Friends or Foes?

I took this photo of an earwig hangin' out on a flower a few days ago while working in the garden. When I was little, I used to be scared of them as I thought they were really creepy.

Despite their scary appearance and reputation, earwigs are not directly harmful to humans. In fact, they are often beneficial, acting as scavengers of decaying matter and predators of insect larvae, slug eggs, aphids, and other garden pests.

Adult earwigs are about 1.5 to 2.0 cm (1/2" to ¾") long and have antennae about half as long. The male has a large, curved pair, while the female has smaller, nearly straight ones. The earwig uses these during courtship and as a defence against attackers. Earwigs have a long, flat body with a tough, shiny, reddish-brown hard outer shell and prominent pincers (or forceps) at the end of their bodies. They do have wings but seldom fly. The female earwig can lay up to two batches of eggs per season and protects the nymphs (young earwigs) for the first two weeks, often chasing the male earwig away.


Mags.

Busy as a Bee

I was watering my container plants early this evening when I spotted this bee busy at work trying to get the pollen out of this tiny, trailing Bacopa flower . After several hundred shots, I chose this one. I really liked how the wings on the bee seemed a bit iridescent.

Mags.

A Refreshing View on a Stinking Hot Summer Day

With the humidity, it was over 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degress Fahrenheit) today. You can understand why I was feeling lethargic and not really motivated to create an exciting masterpiece today. I picked up my P&S and decided to stick my nose out the door to see what was close by. I took some shots of this flower from my neighbour's side garden. I croped the photo to give it a little added interest. Hoping tomorrow will be a better day for pics.......

Mags.

Form

Form is any three demensional object. Form can be measured , from top to bottom (height), side to side (width), and from back to front (depth). Form is also defined by light and dark. There are two types of form, geometric (man-made) and natural (organic form). Form may be created by the combining of two or more shapes and may be enhanced by tone, texture and colour.

This shot was taken from a bouquet of roses that I received from my college graduation ceremony earlier today.

Mags.

Gorgeous Gerberas

After a few days of using the P&S, I decided to pull out the DSLR and shoot a few pics of stuff outside before it started to rain again. I came across these gorgeous gerberas planted in a container along the side of my neighbour's house . I edited the colours a bit to really emphasize the large bloom.

A bit of information on these beautiful blooms: Gerberas are an ornamental plant from the sunflower family and are very popular and widely used as a decorative garden plant or as cut flowers. In fact, it is the fifth most used cut flower in the world (after the rose, carnation, chrysanthemum, and tulip).

Mags.