Up Close and Personal

It is ridiculously easy for us to forget to stop and appreciate the flowers that we encourage on our farm.  Or, it is ridiculously easy to look at the flowers and be depressed because they are in a flower bed that has not been tended.  But, their presence on the farm is supposed to remind us of all of the good things in life.

We try to get a different perspective by getting up close and personal with some of these flowers every so often.  I suppose some of it is to just try my hand at taking some different photos (thank goodness for digital cameras - you can shoot a bunch of pictures and toss nearly all of them with minimal cost).  But, the other reason is to force myself to fully appreciate what I am seeing and to bring my own focus on the flower WITHOUT allowing the weeds or jobs on the farm to take away from my enjoyment.

Chive flowers are always a good target - plus, you can gnaw on a stem if you want.

Sometimes, the picture I take captures what I am seeing as I look at them without a lens.  Other times, I am surprised by what happens.  Case in point:

Johnson's Blue Geranium

The perennial geranium loves our farm and we now have many clusters of this flower - it just likes our place.  Each mound has many flowers, so it is really a different perspective to get a close up of only one or two flowers.  I particularly enjoy the veining on the flower petals.

Daffodils and Pasque Flower

 An earlier Spring picture turned out reasonably well, I guess.  It really wasn't quite what I was seeing either.  In fact, I am pretty sure that I was NOT sure what I was trying to frame when I took this photo.  I am sure it won't win any awards - but I feel like I can touch the flowers here.  I find that rewarding because I will sometimes take a moment and touch the flowers I am viewing just to force myself to focus and appreciate.

Fernleaf peony

And the last installment for the blog post is a fernleaf peony.  Getting a good picture of this flower is nearly impossible, in my opinion.  Part of the reason for it is that they don't really hold up as well as other flowers to close inspection.  The structure of the flower is often loose and it always seems like they are on the back end of their peak bloom.  But, we still appreciate them and grow them.  And, I decided this Spring that they are texture treat for the eyes.

I hope you enjoyed the flower break!