Thursday, August 17, 2017

Hibiscus Beauty

I have 4 beautiful hibiscus right now.   Two are hardy and two are tropical.   

This is my oldest one....I moved it to this house from our former house 7 years ago....so it is older than that.   With all the rain, it is thriving this year.  



So, deciding one was not enough, I recently bought a companion so it wouldn't be lonely...

   

Both of these of the hardy variety have blooms at least 8 inches in diameter. 

Then I have this tropical.....a variety called Mandarin Orange...


I said, I have 4.... and that is true.    The other one is yellow.   However, the resident deer decided they liked it more than I could and chewed it down,    It is rebounding and I am hopeful for more flowers before the season ends.   This is what it looked like before being eaten.....


In addition, here are two gorgeous hibiscus.   One is very small and it is a round bloom.   The other is huge after 3 years and it is called "Limelight".    It has the cone shaped blooms.  




Friday, August 11, 2017

Architecture Abstract

This week's photography class challenge was just way too much fun.   "Architecture Abstract".

My favorite way to shoot photos is to capture something that might not look like what it really is - or might zero in on a certain point as in "contemplative photography".  

This was the photo I chose to enter:   It is a stairway, manipulated in photoshop - the original picture is just below this one.

The following photos were my "also ran for contention".    I like any and all of them!   

 The original of this photo is a barn roof line, which has been mirrored, merged, flipped and rotated.    It reminds me of  a level of a Frank Lloy Wright House that might be cantilevered out into the landscape.

 This one is a stair way again - much the same process as the other stairway.   Mirrored, merged, flipped, rotated - all for interest.

The top dome of one of the buildings.    Mirror Imaged - it looks different depending on where your focus is.

This is just a rock wall - but love the texture.    It was taken last week - so technically should not be entered this week. 


Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Journey of a fern leaf......wet cyanotype

So my old Blogger App has failed me,    Have downloaded a new one.....with of course a new learning curve......let's see how this goes!

I have been playing with some Wet cyanotype sheets......a process I read about on blog by Sue Reno.    I had some older various treated sheets and decided to try it out.  This is a Jacquard Sheet.   It seems to be heavily treated sateen.   This is the best of the Jacquard sheets I have gotten thus far.
    This was how it started......around 9:00 AM.   Fern leaf on slightly misted canvas.   Ready to sit outside and bake in the sun.

        A little later in the day
    24 hours later before washing.

     Rinsed and ready to dry.
      Fully dried.  

This is a total 36 hour process