new blossoms

It's strange without the 'rents here. I'm finally getting sick of leftover lasagna, and it is now Julie who takes the role of 'nagging' me. I have more leeway to do whatever I please, and so the tasks as yet unfulfilled - cleaning my room and the living room for guests, writing two English papers - become ever more apparent in themselves. Don't think I like this.

The nasturtium I planted on the side of the house had 2-3 blooms on it when I inspected it yesterday - hooray! One red, one yellow.

I spent a bit of time on my knees trying to get good macro shots of the flowers - always with the end goal of producing something stunning that would do well at the state fair - and towards the end I thought I was getting there, with the yellow blossom. But it's always a different matter when you can view something up close on the computer screen. I do my best to edit them, but then wonder if I've "ruined" shots simply because I can't do better, more 'sophisticated' editing with Photoshop, which I don't have.

I feel like I have a lot of pictures (well, I KNOW I do), but nothing that would score big in a state fair judge's eyes. I have a nice "eye," sure; I love getting a close-up shot fairly well in focus. But other friends of mine will go on a vacation, come home and post pictures on Facebook - and I'm blown away. For example, an old roommate. One photo set is from fishing on a lake. She has shot after shot of incredible, well-shot skies over water, sometimes with a perfectly-in-focus bird swimming in the forefront. They are truly striking.

Is it the subject matter? Maybe the camera? Mine rarely handles the sky well; it likes to "blast out" clouds or put anything on the landscape side in pure black silhouette.

There's my whining for today.

Perhaps I will post a couple "new flower" shots from yesterday. The yellow ones were very much in shadow, so I was never sure how much to brighten them to a true yellow with my editing program.