We're predicted for rain today; yesterday it was on and off just enough to make it hot and humid and wipe out a good portion of the iris. I thought I would post this photo of one of my poppies; bright, red, cheerful and so full of other colors too!I really did not realize when I shot it how much color was in the center of the flower. Typically we think of a poppy as red, or pink as the case may be, with a black center. But upon close examination there are many colors and shades and hues.
This has not been retouched or photo enhanced. This is just the real flower *as is*. What an amazing show! And how much of this do we miss by just giving a casual glance or listening to the things we learned by rote; the sky is blue, the grass is green, tree trunks are brown........
There is a lot of color out there, a tremendous amount to be seen and absorbed and investigated. We have to relearn to see with an artists eye. I go through this all the time. It is not something you necessarily keep forever. It is a tool that requires use often and sharpening when necessary.
Take a look around you at the everyday things you pass over and over and really LOOK. Use a camera if necessary. What do you see....really?
Isn't it amazing?
16 comments:
Excellent photo. I love the time a photograph affords to study the subject. There have been times I've photographed a flower and never saw an insect or cobweb until it was enlarged.
Yeah, that's the fun part, and that's why I resist doing anything to them unless I crop or just bring the color up to what I originally saw.
It's fun after they are on the computer to open the files and then get smacked with a "WOW"!!!
wouldn't that make a gorgeous eye in a painting?!
...Or a beautiful bit of fiber art....it certainly has made me look twice at the color and think what would I do with this?
Because of vision issues, I've gone through life it seems just getting the "critical" stuff, like cars behind me.....Last November I started following Jane Dunnewold's blog Daily Visuals, and I noticed that I would "see" a lot more around me. I noticed that purple in the flower immediately yesterday and loved it! The Artist's Way talks about artist dates, and I've found that I regularly do that with DH, just to "look" at something new. I've signed up to do a "photowalk" in Tucson in mid-July (I must be crazy...) just to sharpen how I look at things. And tell me again about wabi-sabi? I know I did a couple of posts on it in the blog a long time ago - need to go looking....
This is one of my favorite flowers, I love it in all stages. So happy that I have some growing in my garden now too, in the beginning stages of flowering right now. Maybe I'll take my camera out today.....
Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese ethic, very hard to translate into *our* terms, but it relates (and this is a LOOSE definition!) to beauty being found in the imperfect rather than the perfect. A piece of ceramic might have the intentional flaw, or a very common cup used at an elegant tea ceremony. I think in a lot of the work I do there is a small element of it---my personal interpretation, not the very true ethnic variety.
Artists tend more to understand and *see* this; we look for and glorify the less than perfect as we see beneath the outside shell and understand the beauty of the essence. We find one section of something to render, we see beauty in the decay of soft bricks, the wear of the weather on manmade structures, the beauty of a close up of cracked and peeling paint....
Does this make sense?
Jan, I love them too...they just don't last long enough. I also have some very old poppies that are bread box poppies. I always photograph them when they bloom. I think I have a few pics saved from last year; maybe I will post those tomorrow---you'd enjoy them!
Sorry your iris were hurt. We got next to nothing in town and our light purples are absolutely wonderful. My daughter Rebecca has learned to help me clip the "past their prime" blossoms so the presentation is more pristine.
She was asking if we can take some with us to our new home--what a wonderful idea from such a wonderful daughter.
Take some digitals of the iris, print them out on the computer, then cut everything back before you dig and secure the photo to the plant. That way you know what's what. (I, of course, did not ever do this....)
I moved all mine off-season and they did fine. May skip a year blooming but using a 10-60-10 fertilizer will probably kick them into bloom next year.
I need to get out there and deadhead mine---what a mess.....
If anyone should know how to "deadhead" it would be you, nicht wahr?
Boy you are on a roll today.....you just wait till Sunday!!!!! It ain't gonna be the ineer nun you get to deal with....LOL!!!!!
Haben wir zu viel Zeit auf unseren Händen heute?
Hi Anne...The comment is for Linda!
Linda...I am thinking about signing up the the Photo Walk in Indianapolis, but it starts at 8am meaning I'd have to get up at some ridiculous hour to get there on time! I too have vision problems...where is Jane Dunnewold's blog Daily Visual
deadhead...lol
Nein, Ich bin der guter Pharrer!
All you guys are CRAZY!
But tune back in and read tomorrows post; I think it shall be of sufficient quality that it will be worth the time....seriously.
And I am NOT a deadhead---although I'm missing a few braincells since that blasted anesthetic..... ;)
I know how to *head-bang* in the truest Punk sense of the word!
For Vicki - tried contacting you via your site, but it wouldn't accept the code (3 tries) for a message. Anyways - Jane's blog:
dailyvisuals.blogspot.com
Linda
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Talk to me Dahling!
I'm waiting, breathless...... ;-D