Month: December 2014

First Shot, flora, Floral Photography

My Comfort Zone

by patricia emerson mitchellLeave a Comment on My Comfort Zone

First_Shot-_Cactus_with_Dew,_12.23.14

First Shot: Cactus with Morning Dew, 12.23.14

I am most comfortable with the macro lens. I just love the “Small Of It”, I guess. (I talk a lot to Dan about the “All Of It” when it comes to landscape photography. Yes, I do shoot landscapes, but I find them quite overwhelming much of the time.) I knew I had to “get back on the bike”, as one might say, after yesterday. I went to bed last night feeling rather unsuccessful, and that’s a bad place to be.

Off I went this morning, on one of my little walks. It wasn’t a long one — not quite five miles this time — but I ended up at a favorite house. The home owner has lots of succulents in the front: clearly a water-wise yard! This time of year she decorates her succulents with Christmas ornaments, and I had deliberately walked that way to see what she’d done. Fortunately she was in front, so I could ask if I could roam the yard. She said yes, and I had a wonderful time.

This is just my first shot of the day … no ornaments yet, other than the sparking dew. The plant really glistened in the sunlight.

I came home happy.

Black and White photography, Nature, Wildlife

Pelican on the Pond

by patricia emerson mitchellLeave a Comment on Pelican on the Pond

Pelican_on_the_Pond,_12.22.14

Yesterday we went for a little drive and had a visit with some friends. Oh, and we also met up with some human friends! We had great fun with both sets of friends

Dan has a new lens so I used the 100-400mm his new lens replaces. It’s huge. It’s awkward and, as he told me today, I’ll get a lot of bad photos. Indeed I can verify that as I look at all the shots from yesterday. I’m not sure I’ll come away with even one that I truly like, but this will at least show you some of our “friends”.

Of course I won’t give up on everything I shot yesterday: I’ve learned to be slow in deleting things, as my eyes see differently as I gain some distance.

Christmas, Floral Photography

A Concert … and a Rose

by patricia emerson mitchell2 Comments on A Concert … and a Rose

Red_&_Rain,_12.4.14

Red & Rain, 12.4.14

Dan and I went to a wonderful concert tonight, that included both The Choral Project and San Jose Chamber Orchestra, along with American jazz pianist/composer Taylor Eigsti;  jazz vocalist Juanita Harris, boy soprano Ghythe Hahhad; and oboist Michael Adduci. The music included Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium, as well as some wonderful works by friend Michael Touchi. What a delightful evening! A perfect way to move into this Christmas week.

Floral Photography, Rose Garden

Anna’s Promise

by patricia emerson mitchellLeave a Comment on Anna’s Promise

San_Jose_Municipal_Rose_Garden-_Anna's_Promise_(I),_9.10.14

Anna’s Promise (I), 9.10.14

I spend a good amount of time at our local rose gardens. I feel rather  fortunate to have two of them in my city, and they are walking distance from home. I can even manage to get to both in one day if I have a good amount of time (the round trip is probably about nine or ten miles when all is said and done). I don’t believe I’ll ever get weary of these places.

The Heritage Rose Garden features a lot of older roses, and I am fascinated by those. Even the names can be pretty fun to read: so many roses are named after people and I’ve found names such as Mrs. Dudley Cross, Lady Hillingdon, Ena Baxter, Reverend H. D’Ombrain and Monsieur Gourdault. (I saw no Patricia Emerson Mitchell rose. Sigh.) The area itself is a wee bit more difficult to handle: there is no shade and no lawn as one walks along the rows, and it can get mighty hot. Some of the roses there only bloom once per year,  or so I understand (I need to read up on this to verify), so I try to get there enough to catch the different varieties. They are pretty magnificent, and as far as I’m concerned worth dealing with the sun.

The Municipal Rose Garden has newer roses for the most part, and even has a test rose bed area where new hybrids are grown. It’s great fun to see what people are coming up with. The variety of rose colors is pretty amazing: from chocolate to deep purple, to that velvet red and fluorescent pink. With the fountain in the center (complete with ducks!) and lush green lawn the garden is cooler than the Heritage Garden.

I’m excited to see what our Municipal Rose Garden will look like when it is in full bloom again this spring (?): they are planting somewhere near 1,000 new roses this year. What a task that must be! When I was there last it appeared that a number of the roses had some sort of disease, so I do wonder if that’s one reason why they are redoing a large part of the garden. I do hope I see this rose I’ve posted above there again, though — I think it’s a gorgeous one.