ATC 88/100

 

ATC 55/100 and a tulip for FlowerFriday

 

The first tulip

 

Into the Heart of a Tulip

2000 Blips

Today I will be posting my 2000th blip on the Blipfoto site. I have blipped every day without interruption since November 2010 and although I keep thinking I should give it a rest I seem to be addicted. I never have trouble finding a picture to suit the day. Very often it's something to do with my art as, truth be told, that's what I do most days but there is also the garden, the beautiful Borders landscape, Edinburgh, musea and much, much more.

 I do have trouble with the commenting as it takes up much valuable time which I would rather use to make more art but the stars and hearts on the site allow me to show my appreciation for the photographs of fellow blippers. I'm just going to continue as I have done,  specially as I've become a share holder in the company.

You can't go wrong with tulips and that's why a tulip steals the 2000th blip show. 

There are always tulips

The weather is very  unspringlike but even so there are signs of life in the garden. The daffodils have recovered from the loads of snow that came down over their heads last week,  and these little perennial tulips are putting up a fine show, although I can't help wondering why we put them in the middle of a large flowerbed so that getting to them for photography purposes was like entering the jungle.

A dying Tulip

This is the exact same tulip I blipped a week ago for the FlowerFriday challenge on the Blipfoto site. The tulips are now on their very last leg, hanging their heads till they reach the floor. But even in this state, they have a unique beauty. I don't think they will last another week, or even a day!

Inside a tulip

I had a lovely day out in the Scottish Borders despite dismal weather. Driving was a bit of a challenge as on the way out it felt like I was driving in the Tweed rather than alongside it while on the return journey a giant's hand wanted to push the car off the road. All was well though but definitely not a day for outside photography, so the inside of a tulip will have to do for today. Keep safe, everyone in the path of storm Henry!

Posted with Blogsy

Spring Bouquet

I'm almost (but not quite!) ashamed to admit that this bouquet was bought from our Post Office this morning with the sole intention of using it for the Flower Friday challenge on Blipfoto. Of course it's also  lovely to see these spring flowers in the house while outside storm Gertrude rages on. She is most definitely not a nice girl!

Life isn't a tiptoe through the tulips

The title is a quotation by Shannon Hoon, but I don't quite agree with him. No, not every day is wonderful but seeing tulips flowering makes even those days better.  .

The tulips were very late this year but on the plus side that means they are still out even now in early June. It feels like it's getting a bit warmer outside (finally) although it's still cloudy and overcast. 

These tulips won't be with us for very much longer so that was a good excuse to try and capture the last stragglers before they make way for summer blooms

Spring Colours

Fortunately the rain held off till the dog walk was over and done with, but it's tipping it down outside now. I briefly ventured out on my hunt for the daily photograph and I loved how the raindrops enhanced this veridiflora tulip.

But photography was safer for the camera within the greenhouse where the Sealand Gem clematis has started it's flowering which will continue for most of the summer. I have taken many pictures of it and no doubt will take many more.

Tulip Time

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

A Tulip - Clematis Mix

I don't play with my photographs enough digitally as usually I like them just the way I took them. But this morning I just couldn't decide whether to blip the clematis detail below (from the Sealand Gem clematis) or

 use the close-up of this lovely tulip, so I decided to combine the two into a whole new flower.

Bedraggled Tulips

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Tulips (and other flowers) from Macbiehill

I was going to share my latest (week 21) The Documented Life Project page in my planner (it is done, I promise!) but it's too lovely a day not to go outside and indulge in some photography in our own garden. I sometimes pretend to myself that I am a visitor there and try and look at it with fresh eyes. The tulips remain the highlight at the moment and the raised bed full of them is my miniature version of The Keukenhof.

The double one, called Peaches and Cream (although it's more like raspberry ripple) is a stunner, but so is pink Angelique and

dark Blue Parrot, while the white ones provide some serenity.

I also found some delicious red ones.

And as I mentioned yesterday we have our own blue poppies.

There might be only three flowers so far but there are more to come!

The Berberis too is in full flower

and the Gunnera leaves are emerging.

 

It all goes to show that there is no need to go far for photo opportunities. They are right here. All that is required is to grab that camera and go look.

By the way, you can also find me on Instagram more and more, and there I play with my pictures. Somewhere along the line I seem to have made the subconscious decision to adjust the colours, push the contrast (on the Snapseed and Phototoaster iPad Apps) and I also use the Instagram filters and borders to my heart's content. I'm printing off these photos more and more using Printagram (I can't recommend this company highly enough!) and then use them in my art. You will see this on my Documented Life page this week. It will be up here soon, so watch this space.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Grand Perfection

The title of the blog is the name of this striped tulip which has fascinated me from the moment it started to flower. I've been experimenting with taking extreme close-ups of our tulips so that the resulting picture becomes like a bit of abstract art, as shown above. My Lumix camera has a macro zoom setting and it's getting used almost every day. And every day I try and get closer.

To show you what I mean, this is the tulip as it appears from the outside

and here I'm closing in a bit more. If you want to keep the picture sharp, fast speeds are required (or a tripod, but I usually can't be bothered to get that out and set up).

But it's also fun to let part of the picture fade away into non-focus and that's when it really becomes as abstract as I can get it. The one above was my favourite today and became the blip du jour.

Another tulip picture

Sorry if you feel a bit neglected on this blog at the moment. I'm dashing about from one place to the next, trying to keep all my plates up in the air so to speak, what with taking quilts to Loch Lomond, keeping an eye on my exhibition, walking dogs, taking a blipfoto every day, and also maintaining some sort of order (however small) at home.

This is my blipfoto for today and it's part of an experiment where I try and see just how close I can get to my subject while still obtaining a sharp picture. Zooming in to the extreme means you end up with an almost abstract picture and I'm increasingly attracted to that technique.

The detail above is from a tulip called Angelique.

You can also see a new portrait of me in the sidebar. Following the workshops in the Inner Excavation book which I reviewed some weeks ago, I'm playing with taking self-portraits and this one worked out unexpectedly well. It also looks very sunny so seemed appropriate to upload for this time of year.

Tulipomania

I've been suffering from a bad case of tulipomania recently, going around endlessly photographing them in macro mode.

The colours, the shapes are all irresistible to me and however many photographs I've already taken there are always more viewpoints to picture.

Some late tulips are yet to come out so I'm not done yet with the tulips this year. There will be more!