I’d brought my Big Camera (the DSLR) to Oxford because we’d been told 10 days for recovery for my dad’s brain surgery (he’s doing well, he goes back next week to get the power turned on), and I knew Oxford was beautiful and I wanted to spend a few mornings and afternoons taking pictures.
Then Dad did so brilliantly they were threatening to send him home after 3 days (!), so I got up Very Early and went out with my camera, because damned if I was gonna have lugged the camera and an extra lens all the way to Oxford and not use it!
And I do mean Very Early, because I wanted the sunrise light, so I was out on the streets before 6am. And then the light had changed by 7:15 or so and because EUROPE there weren’t any damn cafes or anything at all open yet and the Botanic Gardens, which I wanted to go to, didn’t open until 9, so I spent a great deal of time wandering around in an exhausted haze.
Eventually the gardens opened, and to my offense I had to pay a fiver to get in (Dublin’s are free, and better), but I got some pictures I loved, so it was all good. :)
This is the most Stock Photography photograph I’ve ever taken. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s so Stock Photography that I find it ridiculous. :) It needs a little bit of fill light on the foreground to really make it pop, and while it’s probably possible to do that with Photoshop, I didn’t know how any more than I had a fill flash with me, so it’s not quite as Perfectly Stock as it could be, but it’s Pretty Stock. :)
I should probably not love the intense saturation of colors as much as I do, but, well, I do, and so that’s my photography aesthetic. And to be fair, these tulips in the morning sunshine really were very strongly colored!
These tulips are METAL, folks. Look at those ragged edges!
I am deeply, deeply in love with this photo. My goal was a crisp close-up with the petals rising toward the lens in sharper (but inevitably blurred because focal point) focus, but lacking three hands, I couldn’t hold the camera properly and hold the flower *still* in the mild wind, so there was an even softer focus than I’d intended and I just love it.
