There are several dogwoods and what I thought were crabapple trees lining the field behind my apartment complex. There’s a lot of shrubby, scrubby, brambley undergrowth in front of the trees, so it’s hard to get close enough to them to get pictures. I managed it, though, and had the most wonderful surprise. They weren’t crabapple trees, but something else entirely. They’re covered with bell-shaped flowers that smell divine. After some Googling, I think they’re Russian olive trees.
This was taken with just the +10 macro filter on top of the Lensbaby. It’s my favorite of the test shots.
It’s really windy today, which didn’t help, especially since I was using macro filters. Every movement is literally magnified.
Sassafras Flowers
Dandelion
These were taken with both the Lensbaby 2.0 and the Lensbaby macro kit (+4 and +10 lenses stacked). I did a crap job of focusing on the bottom photo, but I kind of like the softness. Next efforts will be better!
That tree blossom I posted a few days ago was, indeed, from a sassafras tree. When they open, there are dozens of tiny little spherical buds inside that int urn open up into dozens of tiny little florets.
Covenanter Cemetery, Bloomington, Indiana
I said it was small? This is the older half. The newer half is the same size, and I’d guess it’s only about 1/3 full.
There’s an even littler cemetery on campus (Dunn Cemetery–there’s a link to some photos at the top left corner of that page). I plan on taking photos of it over spring break. It’s adorable, with just a few graves, a chapel, and, again, a dry stone wall surrounding everything.
I had the blinds open in the studio, trying to get enough light to get a progress shot of the three pears painting (verdict: too late in the day). I noticed that the cedar tree outside my window was making a lovely shadow on the wall, so I took its photo instead.
Do the Sunsweet folks really think that tarting up prunes in little cellophane wrappers and calling them dried plums is going to fool people into thinking they aren’t prunes? And who in their right mind thinks that wrapping pieces of fruit in plastic is a good idea? It’s second in bozocity only to individually wrapped tea bags. What a waste!
In other news, it’s laundry day, and The Shadow only knows whether or not one or both or neither washing machine will actually work. And, if they work, will they continue to do so for the entire wash and rinse cycles?
It’s a another beautiful day, though, so I shouldn’t be wasting time complaining. The sun is out, the sky is impossibly blue and cloudless, it’s not too warm (but warm enough for a lone hornet to be dive-bombing my studio window), and DST is finally over for the year.
Yay.
(Photo: a composite of four photos I took yesterday while out in Owen County. This was the view from the fire pit, looking across to the state forest. The fire pit itself being the source of the nifty burned copper leaf in one of yesterday’s photos.)
red paper boat 