Back in Business

It's cool outside, and was recently wet. Although temperatures may end up rebounding into the 80s later this week, the Puget Trough has dropped all pretense of summer. Leaves are dropping; the yarrow flowers are mostly brown and spent; even some vine maples, here and there, are fringed with crimson.

Despite a recent lack of time, I did make it out on a couple photo trips. The pictures weren't my best ever; if nothing else, though, they gave me a chance to try out some ideas that I might be able to realize more successfully at a later time.

This first one is from Richmond Beach. I wanted to juxtapose the blooming yellow flowers against the sunset; I took this basic composition at several different stages of the sunset and this was the best. The flowers need some lightening; I might also consider cooling off the white balance a bit (the colors are a bit warm). If I were to try this idea again, I might try to situate myself such that the flowers were higher in the frame, closer to the sun. This would necessitate getting the camera lower. It would probably also necessitate finding a different group of flowers, since getting lower would have made the foreground flower rise too far above those in the background. At any rate, I'd give this picture a B.

This morning, after the rain was safely gone, I traipsed around Magnuson Park for a while, hoping to find some flowers and plants with water still on them. Although I had a more difficult time than I had anticipated, due to midmorning sunshine and a strong breeze, I was able to eke out a few compositions when lulls in the breeze and passing clouds coincided.

This is an aster flower with a bit of lingering rain on its petals. Upon computer examination, I don't think the water droplets are prominent enough in the composition. Maybe some rain or dew will be kind enough to descend on us in the near future, allowing me to try this again.

Lastly, I took a similarly conceived picture of some grass. It needs some lighting/contrast work to make the blades stand out a bit more; I think that these add a crucial linear element to this composition. I would also consider cropping out the bottom just a bit.