weekly Manxmaid's 52 for 2020: Week 51 & 52 - Showcase & Decorate

Week 13 - Flora + High Key


13 Flora +High Key by Andrea Thrussell, on Flickr

Another image taken in the right week but languishing on the camera until now!

For one week every Spring, our cherry tree explodes into beautiful white blossom and its flowers made the perfect subject for this theme. It was also perfect for another attempt at the high key technique, which I prefer to my previous attempt and I think complements the snow white petals.
 
Super close up Andrea. And spot on for high key (y)

Weirdly my Bonsai Chinese cherry apple, flowers aren't opening, this year
They are just "white buds" :thinking:
 
LC2 said:
Sneaking these two in while I wasn't looking eh? ;)
Fence - Punchy B&W (which I like) with good use of the lines
Flora - Cool high key shot - Liking the yellow tones against the white.
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Thanks, Tim :) I can't believe it's taken me three weeks to get that first one off the camera! Yes, I like those yellow details against the white too; such a shame they've all gone already.
 
Cobra said:
Super close up Andrea. And spot on for high key (y)

Weirdly my Bonsai Chinese cherry apple, flowers aren't opening, this year
They are just "white buds" :thinking:
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Thanks Chris, they were perfect for another crack at high key.

That's strange - do you think they will open eventually or just drop off?
 
Manxmaid said:
That's strange - do you think they will open eventually or just drop off?
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A couple are turning already. Normally they bare fruit later in the year, but I doubt that'll happen now weird!
 
Cobra said:
A couple are turning already. Normally they bare fruit later in the year, but I doubt that'll happen now weird!
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What a shame, especially as you must put time into looking after them and keeping them in shape. A sign of these strange times, perhaps :thinking:
 
Hi Andrea,

Loving your shot for fence. A really nicely composed shot that takes me for a walk along the path. Perfect mono conversion too.
Flora is beautiful. The white petals present a really nice backdrop to the detail in the middle. Very nice :)
 
Very nicely done. I like the way you got rid of what would have been otherwise distracting extra flowers
 
Nice Fence shot. I like the way the eye is drawn into the frame.
A lovely blossom close-up Andrea. You've captured the whites really well and I like the composition.
 
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I really like Fence nice us of the fence as a leading line I like the B&W processing.

Lovely image for Flora great high Key image nice details and texture.
 
Leebert said:
Hi Andrea,
Loving your shot for fence. A really nicely composed shot that takes me for a walk along the path. Perfect mono conversion too.
Flora is beautiful. The white petals present a really nice backdrop to the detail in the middle. Very nice :)
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Thank you Lee, that's very kind. You saw what I was hoping to convey in the footpath image, and I do love our white cherry tree so I am glad to have finally got a nice image of the flowers.

Scots_quine said:
Love that white flower Andrea. It’s beautiful.
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Thanks very much, Joan. The blossom only lasts for a week but it is really lovely for those few days.

Shugpug said:
Your high key flower is absolutely beautiful! That's a print for the wall of every there was one.
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Thank you very much, Alex, I was pleased with the high key effect so I might try a print and see how it looks :)

ncf15 said:
Very nicely done. I like the way you got rid of what would have been otherwise distracting extra flowers
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Thanks Nick, the flowers really suited a high key effect and it helped to wash out the surrounding details.
 
Cloudforest said:
Nice Fence shot. I like the way the eye is drawn into the frame.
A lovely blossom close-up Andrea. You've captured the whites really well and I like the composition.
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Thanks very much, Pete - I have struggled with the 52 recently so it's nice to read that my thoughts were successfully conveyed with these two. :)

Downton Mini said:
I really like Fence nice us of the fence as a leading line I like the B&W processing.

Lovely image for Flora great high Key image nice details and texture.
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Thanks Mark - pleased you like them both. I'm glad to be posting again and edging closer to being up to date!

Phil S said:
Great high key flower
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Thank you Phil - this year's 52 has been a struggle so it's nice to have one that seems to have worked well for everyone :)

CliveH said:
Two nice pictures, really like your high key flora
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Thanks Clive, I'm so glad that one worked out :)
 
Week 14 - Time


14 Time by Andrea Thrussell, on Flickr

I'm hanging on by my fingernails and edging closer! This one came to mind as I was looking at the dandelions popping up in a quiet corner of the garden. First thought was "hmm, they've got to go" and the next thought was "oh, dandelion clocks!"

The light was perfect so I made a quick dash for the camera and spent ten minutes crawling around in the grass trying to get the right angle. One of the cats thought this looked like great fun and inserted himself between me and the plant but fortunately I had just finished so he got a tummy rub in the sunshine. Happy me, happy cat :) The original image was of the whole head but I cropped in to concentrate on the detached seed heads as I love the fine details and think it gives a sense of time passing, too.
 
Loving the black and white and leading lines in fence Andrea.

High key suits the flower, and I like the part of a dandelion which to me looks more interesting than the whole head.

My cat is exactly the same when I head into the garden [emoji16] and if I’m trying to photograph her, she constantly rushes up to me instead of sitting nice and still.
 
LC2 said:
I agree that the close in crop works really well, whilst not seeing the original full size version, this does concentrate the viewer.
How do you get the background so dark for a shot in the garden ?
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Thanks Tim, I thought because the three little seed heads were the most interesting part of the head that I would crop it to concentrate on them. The dark background is the reason I was crawling around on the ground and the cat joined in :) There is a fence there and it was partially lit by the sun so I had to find an angle where the background was out of the sun, then in PP I upped the contrast and boosted the blacks a bit so the one lighter patch is pretty much gone.
 
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Fuji Dave said:
That`s a great dandy clock shot Andrea, the black BG really makes it pop.
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Thanks, Dave - they are such great subjects and stand out so well against a darker BG. I just wish I had taken more shots because it's been windy today and I think they will be looking a bit ragged!

Shugpug said:
Closer in works brilliantly. Great shot with a great background.
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Thank you very much :)

Bebop said:
Loving the black and white and leading lines in fence Andrea.

High key suits the flower, and I like the part of a dandelion which to me looks more interesting than the whole head.

My cat is exactly the same when I head into the garden [emoji16] and if I’m trying to photograph her, she constantly rushes up to me instead of sitting nice and still.
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Thank you for your comments - you are very kind. Cats are such characters, aren't they? Our two love it when anyone joins them in the garden and they appear from nowhere to 'talk' and join in :)
 
CliveH said:
Really like your dandelion clock, so much detail.
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Thank you, Clive, I was pleased to be able to get so much detail against the dark background. I was going to try more but we had strong winds yesterday so I suspect they will have flown away :)

rpn said:
Brillant close-up work, Andrea. Some really fantastic details. Good to hear you were some fun and happy too.
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Thank you Stan, I have struggled with photography for a few weeks so it really was nice to enjoy the sunshine, play with the cat and come away with a photo I was pleased with :)
 
Week 15 - Snapper's Choice


15 Snapper's Choice - Bluebell by Andrea Thrussell, on Flickr

For the 'free week' I have chosen this beautiful Bluebell as a reminder of the first time during lockdown when I chose a different lens and looked for ways to use it during our daily walk. I usually take the camera and standard 18-55 zoom just in case I see something interesting but on this day I swapped to the 55-200 to mentally change gear and actually look for ways to use it.

I saw these flowers pushing through grass by the footpath and took a moment to pick the angle and aperture so the background flowers were thrown out of focus, leaving the pretty blobs of colour behind this young stem. This image has helped to revive my interest in photography, which has been flagging for a while.

I have started getting around people's threads but thank you to everyone who has looked in recently and commented.
 
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Lovely shot of the bluebells, nice colour and they stand out well from the BG
Flora is very good as is Time, nice detail in both
Ive been doing a lot of flowers too :wideyed:
 
Nice Image Andrea, love the B&W processing and like you say the tension builds along the path.

Pete
 
Really Like the last 3 images as well.

Good Exposure for the whilte petals, can see all the details.
The dandelion is very Sharp.
The Bluebell is very different to what I have seen before.

Pete
 
Very nice Andrea.
 
Allan.H said:
Lovely shot of the bluebells, nice colour and they stand out well from the BG
Flora is very good as is Time, nice detail in both
Ive been doing a lot of flowers too :wideyed:
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Thank you, Allan, I'm pleased to be getting back into the groove - even if it's only within a mile of home! :) The colour in the Bluebells really cheered me up and flowers are the perfect subject at the moment.

Shugpug said:
Well done on getting out and being creative. Lovely shot - the colours and background compliment each other beautifully.
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Thanks Alex, I loved those colours too and I feel as though I'm getting my photo 'mojo' back :)

Fuji Dave said:
Lovely image of the beautiful Bluebell Andrea, they really are a photogenic little thing.
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Thanks, Dave, they really are. Lots of those and dandelions around at the moment!
 
seaodyssey said:
Really Like the last 3 images as well.

Good Exposure for the whilte petals, can see all the details.
The dandelion is very Sharp.
The Bluebell is very different to what I have seen before.

Pete
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Thank you for all the feedback, Pete - much appreciated.

Cobra said:
Very nice Andrea.
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Thanks, Chris :)

HelenC said:
Nice crisp bluebell image - the composition works really well.
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Thank you, Helen :)
 
Great colour matching in the shot and it pops nicely against the background.
Loving the rich Fuji colours and interesting to see you didn't need to go fully wide open whilst getting in that close.

I am seriously going to have to consider getting a native telephoto for my Fujis. I'm not that enamored by the adapted Canon Ls on the Fuji.
 
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Time
Good job, I think it was the right decision cropping in. I particularly like the 3 seedlings standing out.

Snappers choice
Lovely colours in that bluebell.
 
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