This is our Rhododendon and I can still barely remember the name from season to season. The blooms look better than ever though. I insisted to my husband that it was because I took special care to water it and talk nicely to the little shrub.
The day was obviously overcast so I started with a high ISO of 1600. The ISO settings determine the camera's sensitivity to light. So when we used to buy film with a 100 or 200 speed film setting, for example, this would be for outside daylight, good conditions. The ISO works in the same way and can be changed according to the amount of light in your environment. Increasing the ISO increases the graininess or noise of the photo so I prefer low ISO's when I can have them. But today that was not an option.
Crabapple? Also looks like a Dogwood to me.
I used a wider aperture, my setting was 5.6 on all of these pictures. I wanted a shallow depth of field which would focus on the blooms and blur the background and I also needed a lot of light due to the overcast weather. I mostly shoot in manual mode now but as a beginning photographer, I wish I had understood more about the settings AV and TV. AV is aperture priority and TV is shutter priority. You just need to get comfortable with one of these modes and the camera will decide on the other mode. Shooting manual can be overwhelming at the beginning so AV and TV are a great way to begin controlling the shots.
Redbud
I love these trees. I remember them being all over Nashville and I really thought they only grew in the South. I'm clueless. Owning a house with a little yard is a motivating factor because I want to see all these trees and shrubs in our own backyard. I could have done better with my focus on some of these shots. Instead of using autofocus, with such a small subject farther away, I should have been manually focusing everything. Live and learn. This is where Unsharp Mask in Photoshop can at least do some sharpening of photos.
The forsythias were calling my name so loudly, I went directly to the store and bought and planted one after my walk. Good neighborhood marketing. As the day lightened up, I had to move my ISO down to 800 so I wasn't getting so much light in my shots.
Easter eggs for giants. I don't know this tree, anyone?
Lovely daffodils (I did use a Photoshop Action called Fresh Color to enhance the colors in some of these photos. It is available for free from http://thecoffeeshopblog.com).
At this point, I start seeing the way the blooms contrast or complement each house. So I began aiming my camera more toward people's homes, trying to catch shutters and house paint as a backdrop.
Once I started noticing the houses as the backdrop to the shrubs and flowers, in a very Pinterest way, I was seeing collages and color relationships everywhere.
As I pondered this great new idea, I thought about some reference I'd seen on the Internet to photographing a person's house. The person reporting this was very suspicious because they had seen someone with a camera in front of their house. It dawned on me that it probably looked weird that I was aiming my camera even in the vicinity of people's homes..if they happened to glance out their windows.
Hmmm....
As I pondered this, a police car slowly drove by. This gave me pause.
But I innocently continued to take pictures in this little schoolyard park. Open to the public. However, at this point, I ratcheted down my front yard photography. I looked into this when I got home and it's perfectly legal to take pics of a person's house as long as you're off their property. Oops. I thought about myself stepping into a couple of yards in order to get closer to their blooming trees. Just something to think about. Always good to keep safety in mind on a photo safari. Walking photo safaris are easy to accomplish. Picking a subject is a good way to focus your photographic energies. Practicing camera settings is easier to do in a quiet setting at your own pace. And if you don't get arrested, you end up with a bunch of fun photos at the end of your walk!
