Macro May 2024 - Day 26

 

I have been eagerly awaiting this rose’s new blooms. I LOVE roses and this one was a mother’s day gift several years back from my eldest, who knew i loved purple and roses and found the perfect combination, what a blessing. It also smells divine so pretty much perfect really.

Macro May 2023 - Day 24

 

Macro May 2020 - Day 27

Well I couldn't go a whole macro May and not include a rose. I have just two in my garden, in pots. They were miniature roses from last year that started indoors and then I repotted them and they have continued to do quite well. Both have new flowers this year and are providing a tiny bit of colour for me with their lovely velvety petals.

Macro May 2018 - Day 30

Not much compares to a rose...

Macro May 2018 - Day 28

The wonderful potential of a rose bud.

Macro May 2017 - Day 20

Day 20 - the magic of a rose (sigh)

I love macro photography. The ability to get extreme close ups and focus on details. When you focus on a close object, the depth of field is much smaller and I love this effect, which further draws your eyes to the subject being focused on. It forces me to look at things in a different way. For the month of May I will be taking at least one macro photo a day, to add to my collection. Some may be more artistic than others, some may be more technical but I hope to push myself, grow and have fun. Feel free to follow along and let me know if you are doing a similar project that I can follow or if you have any ideas for something you'd like me to try to shoot.

Macro May 2017 - Day 10

Day 10 - Velvety petals

I love macro photography. The ability to get extreme close ups and focus on details. When you focus on a close object, the depth of field is much smaller and I love this effect, which further draws your eyes to the subject being focused on. It forces me to look at things in a different way. For the month of May I will be taking at least one macro photo a day, to add to my collection. Some may be more artistic than others, some may be more technical but I hope to push myself, grow and have fun. Feel free to follow along and let me know if you are doing a similar project that I can follow or if you have any ideas for something you'd like me to try to shoot.

Macro May 2017 - Day 1

I love macro photography. The ability to get extreme close ups and focus on details. When you focus on a close object, the depth of field is much smaller and I love this effect, which further draws your eyes to the subject being focused on. It forces me to look at things in a different way. For the month of May I will be taking at least one macro photo a day, to add to my collection. Some may be more artistic than others, some may be more technical but I hope to push myself, grow and have fun. Feel free to follow along and let me know if you are doing a similar project that I can follow or if you have any ideas for something you'd like me to try to shoot.

Day 1 - Can't go wrong with a pretty rose.

Photo a Day February 2015 - Day 9

This is a personal kick start project, a photo a day for the month of February.

It's been ten years since we lost our Mum. Ten years today. That's a long time. A long time for memories to still feel fresh and pain to still feel raw. It's easier to just push it aside most of the time, but as the anniversary draws closer, it always gets harder...so I keep pushing, until the day, and then I have a little fall apart. 

This year is different than the years before. Before I was far away, I could pretend, because I wouldn't have the opportunity to see her anyway, but now I am back in my old home country, where she was, faced with the very stark reality that she is not here with us. It is just so very sad. I know that she would have been overjoyed at our return, to get to spend time with her grand-kids, to have us all together again. 

I feel like there aren't many ways to remember her. I don't know if she had a favourite food, or something that she loved to do, because she was always about serving everybody else. The only way I have to remember and celebrate her is to buy freesias, so that is what I do every year.

But this year, after dropping the kids at school, in this new place where we live, I could not find a single florist open. So I traipsed the streets alone, feeling sad, then came home and texted my brothers and sister. The date is easy for me to remember, because it is the day before my son's birthday, but I don't know if others have chosen to remember it or not...it's delicate ground.

I went out again, later in the day and found one florist open, but no freesias and no suggestion of where I might find some. Two other florists were closed for the day. It just added to the hopelessness of it all. So I had to settle for a little bouquet with roses instead. Simple (and it was on sale, which Mum would have appreciated) but roses are my favourite, not hers and it wasn't what I wanted for today.

The End of Summer

We don't have a garden at the moment so when I visit friends who do, I love to get out my macro lens and see what I can capture. It was slim pickings last week, but I found this beauty. Nothing can compare to the elegance of a rose.

Today's storms reminded me that Summer is well and truly gone, but there is a welcome familiarity to the changing of seasons. Christmas is around the corner, bringing with it more family time and the chance for life to slow down again. So as I listen to the rain, or my children bickering, I remind myself again that I get to choose if my glass is half full, or half empty...and I strive to look for the positives. It doesn't always come easily for me, but I am being intentional, reminding myself of all the good things and hoping for much more.

52 Week Project - Week 37

*Just as a reminder, this is a personal project I am undertaking this year, in order to shoot more and share more. Each week of 2011 will have a corresponding favorite photograph; snapshots from my life.

I love roses, the way they look and the way they smell. The most perfect of flowers. Yes they can grow in many, many places, but they remind me of my home country. An English Rose, a country garden, tea with scones and clotted cream (sigh).

I appreciate Anne Bronte's sentiment, that often with beauty there will come sacrifice, hard work, maybe even pain. We should not expect for everything to be easy and beautiful. It is not a right, or a foregone conclusion. Beauty must be protected, treasured, fought for. How often we yearn for life to be easier, whatever that may mean, at any time. Yet are we prepared for the thorns that will accompany? We need to embrace the hardships, the struggles and difficulties and then we will truly see the beauty that is already before us and value it all the more.