Competition Night, Texas Flowers

Well, another competition and no ribbon, woe is me. Well not exactly. I got to show my photograph. I got good comments on my photograph and I am very happy with that. I like the single photograph that I entered enough that tomorrow I will hang it over my computer desk. If you are questioning how I can keep hanging photos over my dest it would help to explain: I have one 24x36, five 16x20, one 11x14, two 9x12, two 10x10, five 8.5x11, four 5x7 in addition to one 9x12 oil I did for Janet when we were dating, plus the following framed: the Texas Mariners Cruising Association Burgee, a Swedish flag, the Yacht Ensign and the Union Jack that flew on Talaria, our sailboat and a hand carved three foot wide American eagle. There is still space for a few more. The bluebonnet photo will go in one of the 16x20 frames. I put the new poster of the B25 in the 24x36 frame yesterday. It’s a little dark but I am pleased with it.

This is the photograph that I entered. Since I did not get any flower photographs on the club trip to Old Baylor, the next week I drove over to T C Jester where there were plentiful bluebonnets but no place to park. I then drove over to Memorial Park and on the median I found a small plot of bluebonnet and phlox. I am sure I got a lot of strange looks, this old codger rolling around on the ground in a field of wildflowers. One young fellow came up and asked if I was getting any good ones. I told him I thought so but they were all out of focus. That got a strange look.

The photos were shot with the 50mm f/1.4 wide open with a 20mm extension tube. I set the focus manually to the closest focusing distance and rolled around looking for what I thought looked interesting. It was relatively late in the afternoon and I got some nice warm color in the background of several.

Here are a few from the same shoot. I wonder if any would have done better in the competition than the one that I entered? That one was my favorite of the shoot. The next day I went the opposite direction and shot mostly buttercups but the day was overcast and I lost the airy feeling of the shots on Memorial.