Try, Try Again

I must have done something to engender bad luck. This is because most of the pictures I took this morning didn't work. Photographing a red-flowering currant bush with my wide-angle lens: looked gross, and wasn't as striking of a composition as my mind's eye thought. Photographing backlit flowers: failed, because by the time I got each shot composed and focused properly, the light disappeared. EVERY TIME. (Probably about 6 different compositions). A few times I waited for the light to return, but to no avail. The breeze also kicked up just when I needed it not to, and from just the right direction to turn the salmonberry leaves into sails.

And I lost a lens cap.

A few good things happened, though. I chanced to capture some fantastic clouds and light over the Olympic mountains. I also got a decent (shaded) flower picture.

Here are the mountain pictures. They ended up quite a bit underexposed and with not nearly enough contrast...so, for a quick blog-able fix, I used the Auto-Contrast feature in Picasa. Obviously, I would go through a more intentional editing process if I wanted to use one of these seriously. The water in particular should not be so dark, and everything could stand some brightening, but I didn't want to take the time to do a whole lot of editing before posting these.

And, although my backlit pictures were a total flop, this one of shaded salmonberry was acceptable. As far as focusing/sharpness goes, I've done better with this type of flower. But I like the composition, with the flat leaves on top, the zig-zagging branches and the second flower in the background.