Day 349: Christmas Wreath

Since we moved to the US in 2010 I could spend time discovering new things and new passions because I had a lot of free time.  Photography was the most important discovery.  Thanks to my hubby's support and encouragement I started this beautiful art.  I realized that I love to take photos and express my creativity through it :D

Besides of photography I discovered that I also like to do things with felt and fabrics. The wreath that you are seeing was made by me from scratch (except for the plastic balls, I bought them at Michael's).

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/6s  f/13

Day 321: Textures

This is the last photo of the series.  Did you ever take a look at the back of a flower? As you can see some of them can be hairy.

I love the different textures of this photograph and the contrast between the roughness of the stem against the silky petals.

Have a wonderful beginning of the week!

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/50s  f/11

Day 320: Heart

People don't usually pay attention to the details of the flowers when they walked by them.  What probably catches their attention are the colors or shape of the flowers, but I wonder how many people really take a closer look.

The core of the flower is sometimes hard to see with the naked eye, that's why I find them fascinating and that's why I love to photograph them.

This particular flower core seems to have sugar grains around it.

Nikon D90 (102mm  f/2.8) - 1/10s  f/11 + extension tubes

Day 319: The last stand

I was so happy when I opened the living room's curtains and saw a new flower in one of our pots!! We thought we wouldn't have any more flowers until next spring!  It was a beautiful surprise :)

I made another series with this gorgeous flower.  I hope you'll enjoy them!

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/125s  f/9

Day 316: Life Span

I arrived to today's post.  This photo closes the series of dying tulips.  In this one you can see all of the flowers and the different shapes of their petals.

The photo has a sad feeling and the aged look emphasize that mood.

Nikon D90 (18-200mm  f/3.5-5.6) - 1/30s  f/10

Day 315: Floating in the wind

I love the simulated movement of this photo.  It reminds me of the movement of thin fabric in the wind.  On the other hand, the texture of the flower brings a feeling of fragility, seems like the petals are going to brake in any moment.

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/13s  f/10

Day 314: Curls

It's amazing how different can look the same kind of flower after it starts to decay.  They are all beautiful in their own way and they look gorgeous even when death already claimed them.

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/10s  f/10

Day 311: Straight until the end

All of the petals were down, they just couldn't resist the power of time... only the pistils remained strong enough to hold their straight position...

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/10s  f/10

Day 310: Withered

I'm back! Sorry for keeping you waiting! This past days were crazy! Thursday was a super complicated day, I was rushing the whole day!  I thought Friday would be better but no, I woke up with a bad headache and it got worse during the day, so I spent the day laying on the sofa with my eyes closed! Sooo boring! But, no can do...it's the only way I found to deal with my migraines.

Finally the weekend arrived, as you may know I don't upload photos during that days because I try to enjoy time with my hubby as much as I can :)  It wasn't a relaxed weekend though...but it was fun. We went to San Francisco and we walked a lot (around 5 miles)! We ended up with blisters on our feet.  I guess we are not used to walk that much hehehe.  Sunday was "chore day", we had to run some errands, clean our aquarium (it took us about 2 hours because we had to do a deep clean after I messed up with one of the liquids that I use for the aquarium).  By the time we finished it was already evening!! The Sunday was no more!! :(

Beginning of the week again, I went to yoga class as usual and then practiced for my ESL placement test because I'm planing to start College next year.  I'm also planing on taking the English placement test to see how it goes... but I'll do it in December because I need to wait until I have the results of my ESL test.

Tuesday, I woke up very early because my test was at 9am (if you want to know, it went fine).  I returned home before noon and I thought I would be able to write my blog.  I was wrong. I suddenly remembered that there were some veggies waiting for me in the fridge.  I could hear them saying "Hurry! Cook us!! We are on the verge of being spoiled!".  I nodded to myself and thought "Oh, well! It's cooking time! I'll catch up with my blog tomorrow."

Today is tomorrow and I'm happy to announce that I starting to catch up with my blog :)

Remember that the last photo I uploaded was a dying one, well I made a photo session with the dying flowers and in the following posts I'll share them with you.

I hope you enjoy them!

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/100s  f/9

Day 309: Dying windmill

My headaches started to bother me again, even the strong pill didn't work as it should have :(  I need my yoga class urgent!!  but I'll have to wait until Friday...

Who said that only flowers in bloom are beautiful? Take a look at the amazing golden colors of this dying flower, they seem to be made of gold.  It's also beautiful how the flower is decaying, the twisted petals have a beautiful shape.

Beauty is all around us and you can find it in the most unexpected places!

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1.3s  f/9

Day 303: Tulips

Hello again!! This is an update regarding the tulips post.  I checked the photos below in another computer and for my surprise the photo that looked better was the one that in my monitor looked dull!! My brain started to overheat and I thought how can this be happening?!! It was working perfectly fine with the previous posts.  I continued reading and it seems like it was more complex than I first thought.  The problem with the visualization of colors in not only related with the color gamut but with the different browsers that you use to see the photo!! Grrrr!!
At least now I understand a bit more about the problem, but still need more researching...

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Thank God it's Thursday!! It was an annoying and frustrating day today :(  I took several photos of the tulips that my lovely hubby gave me. I was happy with the shots, but after I exported the chosen on to upload it to the blog the colors weren't just right! The photo looked dull.  I suspected it was related with the wide gamut that the original photo have and probably the jpeg couldn't handle it.  I searched on the internet a way to solve my problem but none of the suggestions worked, I couldn't convert the image to look like the original one :(

In the end, I made a print screen and the colors looked kind of like the original.  I want to share with you both photos, so you can see why I'm complaining :P

Oh well... I'll need to search more and try to find out what to do in this kind of situations.

Image capture from the original:

Exported photo: no vibrancy, no brightness, no light! Grrrrrr!!!

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) -  1/8s  f/16

Day 291: Lotus

I love this lotus candle holders! They have the perfect light for a romantic dinner :P  Of course, you can also use them for any other situations, like for meditation.

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 3s  f/11

Day 290: Seize the day

It's finally Friday!!! Thank God!! I thought it would never arrive!!!

I feel a bit poetic today :P  I know it's a sad photo but I wanted to represent the fragility of the living beings.  We don't think about this much often but our time here is very short.  Sometimes we argue or complain about things that are actually not that important.  Let's enjoy the present as much as we can! Laugh a lot!! Love a lot!! Learn a lot!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 2s  f/16

Day 278: Embroidery

I LOVE our new bathroom curtain!  It has several colors on the green and brown gamut. As you can see one of the sections has a beautiful embroidery.

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/4s  f/9

Day 273: Lavender Heart

Today's photo is a very special one. This heart was the gift of one of my high-school friends, Moni (I received this present yesterday).  Even though she lives in China now, our friendship remains the same, as if time never had passed.  She is a beautiful person and I'm so happy to have her friendship!

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/20s  f/13

Day 229: Wild Bouquet

Aren't they lovely?  They were just on the ground forming this amazing bouquet surrounded by soil and dry grass.

Nikon D90 (18-200mm  f/3.5-5.6) - 1/400s  f/16

Day 189: Crimps

Another macro shot of the jazmin, it's a gorgeous flower!! Can't help taking photographs of it :)

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/30s  f/10

Day 185: Silkness

The gardenia is blooming beautifully! We have 6 flowers and there are more on their way :)

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/25s  f/9

Day 183: Aljaba (Fuchsia)

This is another flower on our garden.  She likes the shade and she always gave us lots and lots of beautiful bells :)

When I took this shot I realized that the plant was infected by aphids (pulgones) OMG!! I called my mom to know how to deal with them and luckily you only need to clean the plant with soapy water, quite easy, right?Thanks mom!! :D

Now, there are no more aphids yeah!!

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/5s  f/16

Day 182: Magnum New Guinea Impatiens (2nd try)

Hello!! After a week with headaches I can finally continue with my blog, I have several photos to upload :)

Remember this flower? Well, I tried a second time (with a tripod) and now the shot is as I wanted it to be, but I also took a close up to see if I liked that perspective better. I was right, I liked the close up more :)

What about you?

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/40s  f/18

Nikon D90 (105mm  f/2.8) - 1/2s  f/11