Color, food, and laughter

Our friends Rich and CJ are here visiting for a week and what I'm especially loving is all the laughter. Photography is sneaking in there, as are some fine meals, but the laughter is what is feeding my soul.

Yesterday we ventured out and found some brilliant colors in Greenbank. I was shooting with my iPhone and then created these two painterly images using some Topaz filters. Fun stuff. Lightweight, but fun. And pretty. And yeah, the colors were really this brilliant.

The pansies were floating in water in an orange glass birdbath. How could we pass them by? And the Oriental poppy? Just one in a big patch of them.

Wishing you friendship, good food, and lots of laughter this Memorial Day weekend.

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh.

Colorful days

Despite a bit of rain and overcast skies, I've found good color the past couple of days. I like the complementary blue and orange colors of the fishnet floats and the way the yellow and turquoise colors of the nets emphasize their sensuous folds. (And when's the last time you saw the words "sensuous" and "fishing nets" used together?)

A pink opium poppy in the back yard mist this morning caught my eye, the way the petal acts as a little umbrella, keeping the pollen dry.

And then in Florence this afternoon we slammed on the brakes when we saw a bunch of antique cars in a restaurant parking lot. The fortuitous combination of a brilliant blue sky reflected in the chrome as well as the reflections from a nearby red car really punched up the orange colors on this old Chevy truck. (A car show's scheduled for this Sunday — woo hoo, more color potential!)

All photos were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera; the first one with a Canon 24-85mm lens, the poppy with a Canon 100mm macro lens, and the Chevy with a Canon 70-200mm L lens. I've got issues with the 24-85mm lens: it's not as sharp as I'd like and I'm hoping it's something as simple as an iffy polarizing filter. Testing is in order.

©Carol Leigh, wishing you equally colorful days this week

Summer Color

The opium poppies come and go so quickly, which makes them even more precious. Click to enlarge. ©Carol Leigh