White Orchids on My Patio

Canon 7D, Canon EF-S18-55mm, Raw, 34mm, f/6.3, 1/250, ISO 800

I finally got that photograph of my orchid. I took this on my patio in natural light. I guess I was “feeling it” today!  As usual, I did a levels adjustment in Photoshop plus a vibrance increase.  I put everything on a new layer and changed the blend mode to multiply. It highlights the details on the flowers. I decided to include more lens info in my caption. Specifically, the manufacturer and size of the lens. The lenses I use are all Canon except my Lensbaby. That reminds me, I haven’t used that lens in a while. Maybe tomorrow or sometime this week-end. I am trying to give you as much info as possible about what I do and how I do it. I hope you find some of it helpful.

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My HDR Orchid

 Not that long ago we thought the orchid was dying. I asked Willie to cut it down because it was getting so tall. He put off doing it and then, surprise, surprise, a bud appeared on the top! I thought it might be fun to try another HDR image. I got the tripod out and put a white board behind it. Willie held a piece of cardboard to try to block the breeze. It worked at the top but there is some movement at the bottom. I used five images in this process. That gives me more info to work with than just using three images.

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White on White

This photograph was taken with my Lensbaby 2.0 with the +10 macro filter. I showed you the buds the other day so now I show you the orchid as it is just beginning to bloom. To me it kind of looks like an alien space ship! Willie mentioned the body snatchers! I think it looks good and I like the white on white look. 333/365

Orchid Buds

Now that I am becoming obsessed with my Lensbaby Macro +10, I have another photo to show you that I took this morning. The white orchid is blooming so beautifully, I took a photo of a new blossom that is opening and then I wanted to photograph these buds. With the macro filter I was unable to include the flower and the buds in one shot, so I took this one of just the buds. Maybe I will show you the flower at a future time.

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Willie’s Orchid

Please excuse my second photo of the month of this orchid. It is so beautiful and has eight blooms now that I could not resist taking another photo to share with you. Isn’t it beautiful? It is sitting on our patio and Willie stood to block the afternoon breeze from moving the plant around. That can be a problem! There are still many buds waiting to bloom and if needed, I will share them with you. I used a  wide aperture of 5.6, but it did not blur the background very much, at least not as much as I wanted it to!

A very pretty orchid… 

I added the five star rating system to my blog today. So if you are looking at this post, please give it a rating! It was a gorgeous day today. Willie was finally feeling normal today do we took the dogs and went up to Corner Bakery Cafe for lunch. It was very nice. We sat outside, of course, and the dogs were very good. Donnan did bark a few times but, in all, he was very good. Kyla was a little lady and behaved very well. I did get some bad news from a friend today. Her and her husband found out he is going to be laid off his job in 60 days. I am very sorry. She sounded very depressed and I am sure her husband is very scared. I was hoping things were looking up for us all! Have a good week-end!

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Look What Is In My Own Backyard

This is a beautiful orchid plant a neighbor gave us over a year ago. Willie is taking care of it and as you can see, he is doing a mighty fine job of it. I always thought you had to take very special care of orchids and not just anyone could do it. I guess Willie has the special knack! He counted the buds today and there are 15, aside from what has already bloomed  and shows in this photo.

A gorgeous orchid in my own backyard…

I took a break from transferring files today to take Kyla to the dog park. She had a good time. I feel so bad that I cannot take Donnan with us. He does not understand why he is left behind. I do not know what to do. Can anyone help me? Saw the Dodgers beat the Mets today so that was good.  What are you going to do this coming week-end? I will be taking some photos Saturday morning of a friends 2 year old little boy at Central Park. It should be a fun morning. Not sure for Sunday. I may go to a friends “jewelry” party (kind of like a Tupperware party, but jewelry instead). We’ll see.

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The First of Many Lensbaby Photos

I got my new Lensbaby 2.0 today along with the Macro Lens kit. I have been so excited in anticipation! I had to shoot something to share with you. My white orchid is starting to bloom. I looked at it this morning and thought it very pretty, but I already did a series on my orchid last year. Well, it won out for the Lensbaby photo. My actual first photo was taken looking out from my living room to a wall of jasmine and my neighbor’s roof.  Not very appropriate!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working with my Lensbaby….

It is a little tricky finding the focal point. I ended up using the f4 aperture that was in it and I have not explored the others. I need to find out more information as to what is going on. Maybe there are some tutorials on the Lensbaby site. I did use the +4 macro lens for this image. We are going to an afternoon barbecue tomorrow for a friends birthday. Yesterday I also got an evite to another friend’s birthday on the 20th. It is at some Brazilian restaurant in Long Beach called Greenfield’s. That will be different! Have a good week-end!

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Not My Normal Orchid

I wanted to take Donnan for a little walk yesterday, so (with satellite dish and all) we went up to Bella Terra Mall. They have their Christmas decorations up already! I found a lady selling these orchids outside her store.  Aren’t the colors pretty? I love the purple and deep pink. The yellow isn’t bad either! I saw a lot of orchids at Home Depot last week-end, but they were not as pretty as these and they didn’t have as much variety.

Beautiful variety of colors…

Donnan seems to be feeling better. He got a little too playful with Kyla in the backyard and he scratched the skin above his incision. They like to stalk each other and do a lot of chasing. We have decided to only let one out at a time so that won’t happen. They are both very confused and do not understand. I have a busy day today. We are going up to Pasadena to the shop.  What will I show you tomorrow?

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One Last Time, I Swear!

I could not help but add this one last photo and make a trilogy from my beautiful whie orchid. Looking at the back, you can see more beautiful colors. I love the magenta, the green and the yellow along with the texture they create.  All the buds have bloomed and they will now start falling off one by one. 

The End of the White Orchid

I hope it will bloom for us again in the future. I had an orchid like this once before, and after two years it died. That may happen to this one. I do not have a green thumb, so I will let Willie care for it from now on. It was a nice Sunday afternoon. I looked at a lot of my lynda.com videos and did some work on my website. I am trying to make the home page more “google” friendly.  I think I have it now.  Be sure to check out the New Moon tonight!

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White Orchid – Round Two

Doesn’t this orchid look beautiful in back and white? I wanted to show you how much this orchid has changed in the two weeks since I first photographed it (4/365).  I like the black and white very much; it almost has an infrared look to it. Looks like if I had waited one more day a fifth flower would have opened! Well, I like presenting it this way.

Blooming White Orchid

Sunday was a beautiful day here in Huntington Beach.  I was up late last night watching the Emmy awards.  I am very grateful for my DVR and we very, very seldom watch live TV.  I am a fan of television, but not commercials.  I don’t really have time to add any new shows to my watch list. I won’t bore you with the homework, etc. I did yesterday.  Even I am getting tired of hearing it.  Maybe my life is too boring to have a weblog.  Oh, well – I enjoy the photography and that is why I do it!

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Beautiful Saturday Morning!

I had a good afternoon yesterday photographing the orchid in my backyard that is starting to bloom.  The plant was given to me by my very nice neighbor Eleanor. The little buds are so pretty and I am sure the flower is even bigger today.  I tried some shots with the telephoto lens but I was not too happy with them.  I asked Willie to hold a white card behind the flower so there would be no distractions (there is a lot going on in my backyard!) and it did the trick.  Here is the result:

White Orchid, First Bloom

I got a funny email from my friend Carol this morning.  She said one of her dogs got a piece of soap stuck on the roof of her mouth and couldn’t get it off.  When she saw her, she thought she had peanut butter in her mouth – poor dog!  She could have been blowing bubbles all day!  I signed up for Lynda.com last night and I am so excited to start viewing their videos!  It is something I have wanted to do for a long time.  Now that I designed and created my own website, this should help a lot to enhance and make it better.  I saw that there is a video on WordPress.com so maybe I can make this better too.  Wish me luck!

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