On April 29th, Google sent me copies of photos of apple blossoms and lupine flowers that I took on the same date one year ago. Thanks to cloud cover, precipitation and cooler temperatures, the drabness of winter pervaded the landscape for most of April this year. I had to keep a sharp lookout for splashes of colour in the natural landscape and even resorted to adding some brighter hues to a couple of the photographs I created for this month’s photo blogging challenge.
1. Bright pink
I wore a bright pink pullover when we headed out for our last long walk over spring break in Canmore. Thanks to in-camera wi-fi and the remote control app from Olympus, I walked into the frame and triggered the shutter with my phone.
2. Delicate purple
Back in Calgary, prairie crocuses popped through mounds of last year’s wild grasses. I love the combination of cheerful yellow centres and delicate purple petals. I went to photograph crocuses on the south-facing hill near our home at least three different times. Most of my compositions were close-ups, but this one shows some of the sprawling subdivisions and the snow-covered Canadian Rocky Mountains in the distance.
3. Fresh green
One morning when I was stretching after completing my physio exercises, I looked out the window and noticed millions of tiny water droplets on our lawn that’s finally turning green.
4. Sky blue
We saw blue sky so few times this month that it was noteworthy when it happened! I was walking to complete a couple of errands at the nearest big box shopping centre when the sky cleared long enough for me to pull my camera from my backpack and capture the rare moment!
5. Every colour of the rainbow
It’s been a few years since I played around with coloured paper and my camera, so this month’s theme prompted me to spend an afternoon creating. I constructed 15 flower petals, each with a different colour of paper. After some trial and error, I connected 11 paper petals using paper clips. I placed the rainbow blossom on top of my homemade softbox and illuminated it from below. I made another version of this image using ON1 Layers, where I replaced the white background with a black one; it seemed to go over relatively well on Instagram.
The pot of gold at the end of this rainbow is the opportunity to check out the colourful scenes and experiences enjoyed by other participants in PJ’s photo blogging challenge.
I choose to treat this photo blogging challenge like a photo assignment, which helps me keep working at improving my photography. The one-month time frame makes it pretty low stress. New participants are welcome any time, so please join us! The May theme will be posted at a ‘lil Hoohaa tomorrow.