05-30-2012 Making up for 5 days of pictures

I've been remiss with posting picture since May 25th. I actually did take some pictures on the missing days and other days I took no pictures at all. Today I took my camera out while I waited for John to pick me up and took quite a few pictures. I had 43 pictures I downloaded from my camera and managed to get them down to these:

I thought this was interesting. This is actually a close-up of a light post outside of our apartment complex.

These caught my eye while we were at Ralph's last Saturday. 

I loved the soft pink tops of the petals and the deeper color on the inside. It is amazing what you can find in parking lots if you are looking, isn't it?

I was standing outside one afternoon and saw what I thought was a bloom on the Magnolia tree out in our little yard. The sun was so bright and glaring I couldn't really tell if I saw a bloom or was imaging things. I took pictures anyway and sure enough, there was the creamy magnolia bloom. I played with this one and darkened up the leaves to make the blossom stand out more.

This one I actually lightened the entire picture and it is probably closer to what the tree actually looks like when there isn't full sun glare on it.

Remember the tightly wound fern baby? It is uncurling day by day. I tried to get it framed between the stems of my avocado tree, but it was difficult because of the light glare. The sun reflects off the walls of the  apartment building and even though our place is too dark inside to grow anything, outside in the little yard it gets quite bright.

I didn't do a thing to this picture. Somehow I took it just perfectly. At least I think it is perfect the way it is. 

There was a sweet little bird pecking in the grass while I was out taking pictures and waiting for John this afternoon.

I really have a thing for taking pictures of birds--well, maybe just nature. I love to take nature pictures. I guess I get that from my dad who was an excellent nature photographer.

The flowers were a little dark in this pic, but I loved the way the sun shone through the leaf behind them.

The sun through the red leaves of this hedge just inside the fence of the complex caught my eye here.

I love irises. They grew wild in Alaska and I was always trying to get pictures of them. They were a bit different up there, though. The delicate colors fascinate me.

I loved the texture in the green buds on this one.

Jacaranda trees have always been my favorite. I can remember driving through Santa Barbara on the freeway with the Jacaranda in bloom and all these gorgeous purple flowers. I wish I had gone out early in the spring and gotten pictures when the blooms were at their peak.

These were beautiful. What is interesting about this picture is that these are actually yellow flowers. It was bright with lots of reflection, so I manually made the whatever it is called smaller and that, in turn, seemed to change the color of the flowers.

They are beautiful this way, though!

Here is the same flower, but with more light. I used the flash and they stayed yellow.

This one I used a filter to try and bring out the  yellow and the edges turned yellow, but the petals stayed more peachy.

And finally--tada!--This is very close to what they actually look like outside. They are beautiful. I have no idea what they are, but I love the colors in the middle.

I would love to take a digital photography class someday and see if I can learn more about picture taking.