A peaceful stroll through Descanso Gardens

 

Life is so funny - when I was in high school my best friend, Teri, and I would hang out at Descanso Gardens.  I know it isn't a likely hang out for most teenagers but she had a brother that lived very close to the gardens and we would stop all the time to enjoy the flowers and the bird sanctuary. Believe me we spent our fair share of time at Toluca Lake Bob's Big Boy and the Pickwick stables but the gardens have come full circle for me.  After many, many years I started going back to the gardens this time with my husband and our cameras. We try to visit a few times a year to catch all the different flowers blooming through out the changing seasons. It's still one of my favorite places to hang out and I think of my friend every time I return.  I am so happy to add to this blog post due to some recent news regarding my friend that I went to Descanso Gardens with. I was cleaning out my desk drawers and found a folder with old photos in it one of them was my friend's senior picture. I quickly checked the spelling of her name again and searched for her on Facebook. I went to message her and saw an old message sitting there from 2 years ago that she had contacted me! So I sent her a new one and we are now Facebook friends, I am thrilled and hope to see her soon.

Oh, to dance with flowers

Why I love photographing flowers 

photographing flowers is a dance 

just me and my flowers 

moving to the light and shadows that embrace each petal

getting in close enough to smell the fragrance of its essence

gazing long enough to appreciate the dusting of pollen

focusing each step on the uniqueness and beauty each flower holds

hoping our dance together brings joy to all that view it

two of my favorite things to do - dance and photograph flowers

To view video on iPhone or iPad click here

Wisteria Pods

I have had a fascination with wisteria pods this summer. This is the first year I discovered them in the wisteria out back. One thing is their color a beautiful olive green that I love combined with the lavender from the flowers one of my favorite combinations. The the other thing is the velvety texture - so amazing. I opened a few for my friend who wanted to start growing some wisteria so I dried some pods and cut them open, I was surprised at how small the seeds are, I expected them to be pea sized but they are very small. Thank you wisteria for all your loveliness this summer.

Preserving the past

I was looking through magazines the other day and ran across an old copy of "Somerset Digital Studio"Autumn 2014. I remember keeping it because it had a free download of handwritten vintage text which I really liked. Sometimes I like adding text to my photos which got me to thinking how much I love running across a note, recipe, or card from my mom and seeing her handwriting. That got me to thinking what would happen if I used my mom's text to add to my photos, then I could see her handwriting all the time and enjoy it and preserve it. So I got out a few of her cards and photographed a few of her most recent sentiments. I scanned the text and cleaned it up in Photoshop using brightness and contrast and made brushes out of it and added the sentiments to a few photographs. After completing my photos I looked up the author of this article in Somerset and discovered I follow her on IG - small world!

Waiting for Poppies

I've been trying record a video of a poppy opening. I was very close to capturing one. I saw a pod cracked open and ran to get my camera a tripod came back and it was all open and beautiful. Until next time.

Desert Garden at Huntington Library