Driving Home Past Flowers

“If you love a flower, don’t pick it up.
Because if you pick it up it dies and it ceases to be what you love.
So if you love a flower, let it be.
Love is not about possession.
Love is about appreciation.”
― Osho

This weekend was a weekend of transition.  The temperature became cooler and I could feel the world starting to make its transition from one season to the next.  I, personally, was working to make my own transition.

It always takes time for me to adjust from having two months off in the summer to working full time again in late August.  It just takes time to fit all of the things that I need to do into a 24 hour a day period.  It usually takes me about a month to fit all of the pieces of the puzzle together.  This weekend was a weekend of trying to find that rhythm once again.

As a photographer, I find that the more at peace I am, the more creative I can be.  I am sure it is that way with every artist.  This weekend, although I had two day trips to beautiful areas to photograph in the mountains, things just were not falling into place.  For whatever reason, I just could not make an image that was satisfying.  I thoroughly enjoyed the time I had in gorgeous, natural settings with my close friends and family with whom I shared those spaces, but simply could not capture those peaceful places adequately.

On my way back from one of these day trips, I saw a scene, on the side of the road that literally made me turn my car around and head in the opposite direction.  There are many places in North Carolina, where flowers have been planted on the roadside thanks to The North Carolina Department of Transportation Wildflower Program which began in 1985.  You can read more about this program and some of the types of flowers that have been planted here.

This is the beauty that made me turn my car around.

I began using different techniques in order to try to capture these colors in a pleasing way.

I started by just taking straight pictures of the flowers.  I changed my aperture in order to get different looks.

After a while, I tried a more artistic approach to capturing these bursts of color.  Choosing an aperture and shutter speed combination that would give me a longer exposure, I zoomed while the camera was making the exposure.  That created some interesting looks.

I then took tried turning the camera some as I zoomed to create a slightly different look.

My final two images included here (because I couldn’t decide which I liked best) were created by setting my camera on multiple exposure.  In between each exposure, I changed the focal length and turned the camera a small amount.  I was pleased with the resulting images.

So I ended up processing only those images that I had no intention of creating in a location that lured me in passing.

I hope your weekend was colorful wherever  you were!