By Cathy
The day is
unusually warm as I sit in my swing. The afternoon sun peeking over the tops of
the trees is a little too hot for me. I’ve taken off my shoes and my bare toes
skim the still cool ground as I push the swing back and forth. My swing hangs
from the branch of a large oak tree, but the bare limbs provide no shade. The only
thing that keeps me outside is the breeze. It brings much needed coolness
as it blows in my face. I love the wind. I love the sound as it rushes through
the pine trees. I laugh at the new green
leaves on my Bradford Pear as they perform a wind dance. I enjoy watching the birds high above as they
catch a wind current and glide through the air. I listen to the music created
as the wind swirls through my wind chimes; the smaller chimes tinkle, while the large ones play a deeper song. That same breeze that cools me and relaxes me has also been
a challenge to my photography this spring. The wind just keeps blowing and
blowing and blowing! Because of the wind,
I haven’t taken many pictures of the pretty spring colors.
I realized
this week that if I waited for a day with no wind, I wouldn’t take any pictures
at all. Much of the early spring blooms are already gone. They
didn’t last long this year due to days of rain, high winds, and frosty nights. I
decided if I wanted some spring color I’d just have to embrace the wind, so my pictures
are different this year. I’m calling my collection of spring pictures Spring Abstracts and Impressions. I decided to
just have fun with it, forget trying to get the perfect tack sharp image, and
concentrate on shapes and colors. I went out with the idea of taking blurry
pictures. Imagine that! I tried intentional camera motion where I used a slow shutter speed
and gently moved the camera in a vertical motion. That picture is the one at the top of the post. Still using
the slow shutter speed, I gently zoomed the lens out which created a burst
effect.
Using my tripod,
I set my camera on a slow shutter speed and just let the wind control the blur.
This was harder than I thought. You have to find the best speed to create a
pleasant blur, not a she-took-a-blurry-picture blur.
An
unexpected surprise happened when I took a picture through the bottom of a clear,
small drinking class that I’d placed over a flower. I'll be trying this more often, as I really like it!
Of course,
spring is the perfect time for finding beautiful water reflections where blur definitely adds to the picture.
Sometimes a
person has to just go with the flow and find beauty in a unique way!
I’m
wishing all of you a beautiful, happy spring whether it’s tack-sharp or blurry!
“March brings breezes
loud and shrill,
Stirs the dancing
daffodil.”
~ Sara Coleridge (1802-1852)
“The Months,” Pretty Lessons In Verse,
For Good Children; With
Some Lessons In Latin,
In Easy Rhyme, 1834
