"Flower Power"
We are slowly getting back into our normal routine. Weber went back to school today, but it was a teacher workday - no kids; and, he got home a little earlier than usual. Though I don't officially start classes until the Tuesday aster MLK day, I did do a little school related work this morning. I was glad to be able to work from home and not have to get out early this morning in the 13 degree temperatures. I know that is warm compared to what much of the nation is experiencing today, but it is cold for Dallas.
After I finished the project at hand, I got to work on the daily photo. Today's prompt is a technical one - macro photography. I have a macro lens and use it quite a bit, but I would not say that I am particularly skilled or intentional with my macro shots. I look forward to this repeating skill builder prompt throughout the year.
In thinking about what I wanted to photograph today, the "perfect" idea came to mind. I have been fascinated by the beautiful colors of the acorns on the live oak tree in our front yard. They would be a perfect object for today's photo. I bundled up, which means I actually put on a coat, and went outside to capture the beauty of the acorn. It was windy and I was having trouble with focus, though I thought that I probably had something that would work.
After taking quite a few shots, I came inside to check the images on the computer. What I saw was major disappointment. Somehow, the pictures were not what I thought I saw on the true. This is often the case when I look at photos on the computer, but most often they are better than what I saw. Today was quite the opposite. Even more puzzling, I couldn't really figure out what was "wrong." Here is the best of those shots, and that is not saying much.
I let this puzzlement sit for a while and I started cleaning up a little bit. Part of that cleaning involved picking up dropped leaves and blooms from the flowers that have been around since my birthday. In a moment of desperation, I decided to see what kind of images I could get of them. I don't know what makes one think that they can get a good creative shot of nearly dead flowers when they can't get one of really pretty acorns. Never try to figure out how my mind works!
Let's just so that one thing led to another and that is how today's official POTD was born. It required the use of the flowers and other supplies. I ended up taking the photograph on the front porch because even though it was cold outside, the sun was shining so the light was good. When Weber got home and went to check the mail, there were little drops of liquid all over the porch. Oops. He asked what they were. I said, "vegetable oil." To which he said, "I'm not even going to ask." I didn't say anything but I thought to myself that that was probably a pretty good plan on his part.
On an almost completely different note, about this time last year I also took a picture of my spent birthday flowers for a completely different prompt. You can see it here.
How many times do you have to do something before it becomes a tradition? Perhaps I have officially begun the tradition of photographing my birthday flowers right before they go to the great compost bin beyond. What is weird about this is that I didn't photograph them when they were fresh and super beautiful. Like I said earlier, don't try to figure out my mind!
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