NW Images & Altered Art

My friend, Sue,  called to tell me her Amarylis was in bloom.  She sent me an image she had take with her tablet and gave me permission to do some post processing editing.  There was furniture in the background which detracted from the blossom. I used the healing brush and the paint brush in PSE 15 to make a black background   Then she invited me to come over so I could take some close up (Macro) images.  I took some green felt with me and we took one blossom off the stalk.  I captured the R image with my Panasonic camera and used out door lighting. I also increased the saturation and sharpness. The images were posted to the NC Unit of the Herb Society of America and posted to my FB page.   

 Winter is here and so I decided to use evening sky as background to take pictures of some bare  tree branches in my neighborhood.  Winter definitely gives you a different image to see more texture and patterns in the shape of the trees.  The image on the left was taken later in my walk and the sky had oranges and yellows and more sihouette.  The image on the right was taken about 20 minutes before and I purposely tried to expose to see the bark.  I could not isolate tree that well from other branches encroaching it so I cropped off part of R side. Taken with iPhone 6S and used HDR setting to get more vivid colors.

 Last night a cold front moved in and we got a mixture of freezing rain and ice.   I took these close up images with my iPhone 6S while walking Ms. Faye (the dog) about  10:30 a.m. -- ice was starting to melt. Image on the left is red Nandina berries but I have seen some in yellow @ the GSO Arboretum.  Image on the right  berries I could not readily identify.  ? Crepe Myrtle.  I sent these images in to WFMY2  but chances of them getting posted  probably not that good,

 Originally I lived in Ohio and the only place you could see camellias was in a conservatory.  When I moved to NC I was so happy camellias would grow outdoors here.  The last few weeks I have been trying to take pictures of different varieties.  The one on the left I found mid December at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Greensboro. The one on the right I took last Tuesday at Sarah Duke Gardens in Durham, NC.   The ones blooming now are fall blooming and Sasanqua.  I have some that bloom in the winter and are Japonica. White ones are not as cold hardy in our zone. These images were taken with my Panasonic camera - macro mode with only minor editing in PSE.   Sometimes difficult to capture because of the shiny green leaves.  Also if in gardens can have pine needles and debris or small insects crawling in the centers. 

 Happy New Year 2019!!  Time to start another photo blog.  Image on the left was taken at the NC Museum of Art in November, There was a mirror on the wall and decided to take a selfie with the Panasonic camera.  The image on the right was taken 2 days ago at the Greensboro Arboretum.   This shrub blooms the end of December and easily damaged by snow and low temps.  Used macro setting. The flowers actually hang down -- so difficult to capture. For more info about this winter shrub ( Chimonanthus praecox "Mangetsu" - Wintersweet) It is native to Japan and China.  The flowers are very fragrant:  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/3297316/How-to-grow-wintersweet.html