Summer Weather Is Here!

As the title of this post suggests, summer weather has finally arrived! Temperatures have been kissing 80*F (27*C) and my AC has been turned on for maximum effect. I love summer but unfortunately, don't have much heat tolerance; however, that doesn't hold me back from going outside and snapping away!

We'll start off where we left off last time, with the mudan peonies. A side effect of the spring-summer transition is rain...lots of it. This year, the timing seems particularly bad as the warm weather brought about a lot of blooms, only to be followed by rain. This has the undesirable effect of withering the flowers prematurely, which ironically, presents a photographic opportunity in and of itself. Here, we have the fallen petals of a mudan peony:

Near the mudan peony is a clematis bush. I hadn't intended to take pictures of this particular flower but did since there was a bee on its petals. Last year I got some nice shots of bees gathering pollen from a sunflower, which was pretty cool to watch.

All of the photos is this batch were taken with the DMW-LC55 close-up lens installed on my DMC-FZ35. This lens works great in capturing the fine details as seen below. I was also quite pleased to see that the white clematis was not overexposed.

Okay, let's take a break from the clematis flowers. We actually have several varieties of them in the front/backyards but we'll take a look at them later on and give other flowers a turn. I'm not sure what the purple flower in the first photograph below is so if anyone does, then please let me know! The latter two are a rosebud and and iris, which is a spectacularly elegant flower with beautiful colors.

Guess what? It's back to clematis flowers! These flowers are from a clematis bush in the front yard and I just couldn't resist the perfect lighting the sun provided at the moment. The DMC-FZ35 really shines when there is adequate lighting.

The variety of clematis below is different from the magenta and white-petaled ones above in that it has blue-purplish petals arranged in a much more intricate pattern. Personally, I like this type of clematis the most because of its beautiful colors and multitude of layers of petals.

All around the front/backyards, I am seeing peony buds preparing to bloom. There are actually a couple that have already bloomed but the majority have not. I will be traveling for work next week so hopefully they will hold on until after I return home to bloom. Stay tuned!

Florilegia! Part Deux...

Welcome to the second part of Florilegia!

It's way too early in the morning for Saturday considering I was on the road for 10+ hours yesterday and breaking my back moving my sister's stuff back home from school. Anyway, I'd like to finish up the round-up of my last month's activity with the photos below.

We'll start off with a pair lilac images. There are two lilac trees in my backyard - one produces purple flowers and the other, white flowers. I never really paid attention to these flowers until this year after they blossomed from unassuming and rather plain buds. Once bloomed, there was a strong fragrance in the air around the trees.

Below, we have blueberry flowers, some of which will eventually become plump blueberries. I love everything blueberry - muffin, scone, pie, yogurt, juice. I'm not sure why but foods with blueberries are just tasty!

Above, we have a full-view of a clematis flower; below, we have a close-up view. I had several photos of clematis flowers last year but what the heck.

Here we have the purple flowers of some type of green onion/leek/scallion plant from the front yard. These flowers are oddly similar to those of Chinese chives albeit purple rather than white.

The last seven photos here were taken with my DCM-FZ35 with the DMW-LC55 close-up lens attached. This is a nice add-on lens as it gives a 2-3x boost in magnification and a nicer bokeh! 

The two photos above are of lilacs and roses. Below, we have a hoverfly taking a break from erm...hovering. =P This little guy stood still long enough for me to snap some shots of it and boy are they quick when flying around.

Now, for the last round we have a few photos of the mudan species of peony. This flower has beautifully full petals and is quite large.

It seems like we've been getting rain more often than not lately, which puts a damper on my photographic activities but once it stops, a whole other opportunity is presented. Here we have some close-up shots of raindrops gathered on the mudan petals.

Well, that does it for now. We're fully caught up with my latest photographs and I suppose once I have another batch, we'll have my next post!

Florilegia!

Hello all. Earlier I was looking at the Google Analytics statistics for this little blog of mine and my Picasa Web Albums and realized that it's been over a year since I started this little virtual adventure! While my blog won't be claiming any web-traffic prizes anytime soon, I am quite pleased that I've been able to share my content with people from in almost two dozen countries. So, I'd like to say "thanks" to all my visitors and give a special shout-out to Brazil, Hong Kong, and the UK for topping out the statistics!

Since my last post over a month ago, I've been spending my weekends in NYC and working extra hours so I've not had a chance to post new content. While reviewing the blog, I realized that I had originally subtitled it "Chronicles of a...that is life." Now, that certainly seems weird since my posts have mostly been photography-related and not much on life experiences. This was not my original plan for content but since that's the way it's worked out, I'll continue to share the results of a hobby that has drawn me into the wonderful world of nature.

Alright, without further ado, let's see what I've been up to for the past month or so. Starting the lineup is a pair of daffodil shots:

This is the solitary daffodil that grew in my backyard and I almost missed noticing it. Daffodil are quite beautiful flowers, especially the multicolored varieties. This one may be yellow thru and thru but it has an elegance of its own.

Next up are magnolias, of which there are several trees in my front yard. These usually last for several days to a week or so before disappearing and the weather managed to be nice for a couple of days while they were in bloom.

Last year, I had taken a similar shot of a "sea" of magnolia blooms but it's a new year and I have a new camera so we have a new photo! Zooming in real close, we have a view of the heart of the magnolia flower:

The road to these pretty blooms wasn't an easy one given the foul weather and each one started out like this...

...before turning into this:

While walking a short distance away from the magnolia trees, I found a small cluster of small dandelions. Typically, dandelions are hated by keepers of immaculate lawns but upon closer inspection, these little flowers are quite intricate.

Back near the magnolia trees is one of a couple of nectarine trees that grow in my front and backyards. Unfortunately, these produced less flowers this year than last, presumably as a result of the harsh winter we had this year.

Sadly, even the most beautiful of things must come to an end. We'll finish up today with an assortment of magnolia, nectarine, and cherry petals that have completed their journey for the season.

Lately, I've been trying to experiment more with lighting and perspective in my photographs rather than taking straightforward shots. The sunlight the day of these pictures was broken up by trees and plants, which resulted in the light/shadow patterns. While this is it for today, I have even more photographs taken during the last month to share so keep an eye out for them in upcoming posts!

I was away in the big city for the weekend and missed out on some excellent weather. Luckily, the flowers didn't go anywhere and I was able to get some shots after returning home. Today we have some hyacinth flowers, of the pink variety, which I didn't even realize grew in my front yard. I only happened upon them on my way towards the magnolia trees, which are also in bloom.

Since it was cloudy this evening, I adjusted the white balance accordingly and managed to get warmer colors than what the auto-AWB gave me. The lighter color of the flowers (compared to the bluish/purplish ones) also worked to my advantage, giving me a little bump in shutter speed.

Here's a close-up for the last shot. I have to say that I really enjoy getting close-up views of flowers.

Hiya, Cynth!

What a pleasant surprise! A couple of days ago, I had mentioned that flowers in my backyard should be blossoming soon. So what have we here today? Some hyacinth already blooming!

Hyacinthus orientalis

Last year, I began my photographic adventure with these very same hyacinth plants. Some 15k+ photographs later, I've come full-circle. This year, I decided to use my DMC-FZ35 instead of my DMC-ZS3 since the former allows some more manual inputs. While the down-sampled images yield similar image quality, last year's ZS3 results seem cleaner than the FZ35's. Nonetheless, I'm pleased that the 2011 season has begun!

There are currently two cultivars in the backyard, one that is blue/purple and the other that is dark red/maroon in color. The white mass in the above picture is a clump of hydrangea flowers from last year's season. 

Here is an overhead view of one of the hyacinth clusters. For these photos, there was limited sunlight due to the setting sun so I was at the mercy of low-light and low-shutter speed. Steadying myself for these photos challenging especially with a light breeze and many attempts ended up being overly blurry.

For the last photo, we have some lilac buds, which should be blooming soon. The weather forecast is suggesting warmer and warmer days, so these will be beautiful flowers in short time!

Supermoon and Thorns

Earlier this month on March 19, as most of you probably heard on the news, the Moon reach its closest distance to the Earth in 18 years. This perigee coincided with the "full moon" phase, giving stargazers a chance to view a supermoon. In the days before, I did some research into moon-photography and preset my trusty DMC-FZ35 in preparation of capturing the supermoon. In times like this, one can really appreciate the 18x zoom lens on the FZ35. Here are a couple of shots from that chilly night:

The photography above was actually taken by accident since the camera focused on the tree branches rather than the moon. Accident or not, I still like how it came out. Below is a full-zoom view of the supermoon. While the FZ35 was not able to capture all of the details of the moon, it performed quite acceptably for a small-sensor camera. With the 18x lens, I effectively had 486mm of reach in terms of 35mm equivalence.

Perigee-syzygy goodness

Over here in NY, it still feels more like Winter than Spring. Just a couple of minutes ago, the news mentioned snow in the weekend weather forecast! Nonetheless, with a bit of wandering around in the backyard, there are still things to be found as subjects. Below are some close-up photos of thorns from a rose bush:

It was hard trying to get the autofocus to lock onto the thorns since it there was a breeze causing the rose bush to sway. I'm not sure why but the thorns fascinated me so I spent some time trying to get the best focus I could.

This concludes today's entry. Spring is upon us so there will be a lot more things to photograph. Stay tuned!

Winter Snowscapes

So it's one week into Spring and only now did it just dawn upon me to post some photographs I had taken over Winter, which hadn't been all that eventful in terms of photographic opportunities. Nonetheless, Winter has its moments, usually when there snow all over the place and heck, did we have some snow in the Northeast this Winter!

First up are ice-tipped trees, the beautiful product of the January 25-27, 2011 North American Blizzard, which was the third major snowstorm in three-months time. My flight to the PRC was actually on the day before the Christmas Blizzard, which grounded flights throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions.

Ice-tipped treetops

The ice from the overnight snow encased tree branches all over the neighborhood and were simply beautiful. By the time I had finished shoveling the driveway, the sun had emerged from its slumber and the ice had begun  to melt slowly, creating a delicate symphony of shattering ice as the branches broke free of their freezing confines. The photo below is of icicles suspended from the overhang of my abode after snowfall about a week later. To me, icicles have a certain grace of their own. I remember one time at school, there was one that actually reached the ground from its perch over 50 feet above!

It's hard to believe that Spring is already here and just a week ago, it was even harder to imagine so. Why? Well, Mother Nature threw a curve ball and surprised everyone with several inches of snow overnight. That morning I woke up and did a double-take after stepping outside because everything was covered in snow.

Snow-covered trees are just as beautiful as ice-tipped trees, no? This day's snow was there in the morning and gone in the afternoon. Temperatures then were tens of degrees higher than in the morning, betraying no evidence of the day's earlier snowfall. Admittedly, I was unsure of how to best capture the snow-covered trees. I tried some shots and decided to zoom in on a magnolia tree in the photo below, which induces dizziness if I look at it too long...

This was probably the last snow of the 2010-2011 Winter. Soon, flowers will be blooming left and right and I'll be reaching for new SD cards to fill up with photos. This year, I'll be venturing out to botanical gardens to find exotic flowers so stay tuned!