Brave New World

Greetings all. I don't usually photograph flowers very much (apart from dandelions). I just don't tend to notice them particularly... not in a bad way, I'm just usually thinking about something else.

But this year, I've really been struck by the blossom. It's been absolutely gorgeous. A combination of many things I suspect: the physical stuff of lockdown, staying local, really looking at what's around you, but also the softer side of it, the sense of hope and looking forwardness that this particular spring seems to have brought with it, that sense of rebirth, the longing, the yearning, for better times to come... er, hopefully.

So. This is a project about that. All of it.

All taken with the Pentax K1ii as ever, and various lenses: DFA 70-200, PLM 55-300, 1.4 Teleconverter.

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All thoughts/comments very welcome as ever...

Thanks and best

It's a beautiful set. #1 takes it with the colours and framing.

All very nice, and I would love to know how you made the first one, great shots.

Lovely stuff Bill

An unusual and appealing set - thank you Bill.

Philip

The photographer who came in from the cold........

Good to see you posting again Bill. Another outstanding offering. Great stuff.

Best regards

A lovely set of photos; your use of light makes an unusual and appealing result.

Beautiful set Bill with a fantastic collection of bokeh effects to go with them. (I too would like to know how you created #1).

What them others said. Lovely whilst a little different.

Good to see a different look to common subjects - some of those shots look as though they could have been taken with old "classic" glass. Awareness of background is so important but we often overlook it when we are concentrating on focal point, depth of field, etc. but you have clearly considered it carefully in this set

Stunning.

Superb use of light and colour in the backgrounds - even in No. 2 where the background brings out the flowing stems rather than the flowers.

For me, these aren't pictures of flowers, rather they are pictures with flowers. And all the better for that.

Steve

A very tasteful set of photos, Bill. 1, 3 and 5 (and, perhaps, 6) form a wonderful subset, a beautiful study in background lighting (5 stands out in that regard, what an eye for the beyond!). Of the variations on a theme (4,8 and 10) I rather like the more mysterious nature of 4, with the almost dangerous leaning of the flowered twig toward the unsettling void of the vertical crevasse to its right. And 7 & 9 have an eye-catching play between the elements and their false shadows. Your colours, as usual, are strikingly subtle all around. Very happy to see new output from you Bill. And I hope things will start picking up on the theatrical front soon.

A cracking set of images, great to see such an original take.

Thanks Haris, LoadofTripe, Peter, Philip, Gary, Antony, David, Nigel, John, Steve, Serge, Rob for thoughts and comments re these...

David and LoadofTripe: re no.1, yes, interesting, no smoke and mirrors I promise, just one shot. Lined up the blossom with the last rays of the sun, and exposed for the highlights. The dynamic range of the K1ii did the rest: recovered the (comparative) shadows (in this case the blossom) in Lightroom. I always shoot raw, which helps.

Gary: yes, huge apologies for lack of radio contact. Have been very busy on a number of fronts, including the day job, which has been very welcome indeed.

John and David: yes, was all about connecting the foreground to the background this project... the present to the future, if you like.

Steve: yes, I rather liked number two at the time. Unlike the others, it was taken on a flat light low cloud day. So more about the form of the branch itself, this one. Thanks also for the thought re with rather than of. That's very perceptive, and a conscious decision I suppose on my part to head in that direction. Very much a project about life, rebirth and the future (with the kind help of some very amenable blossom).

Serge: thanks as ever for your detailed thoughts, and for spotting patterns, almost sets, within the set. Always enlightening and much appreciated. Yes, there's a mood to 4 that I really liked... side-lit by direct sunlight. Went looking for something similar elsewhere, but didn't quite manage to find again (not with this set anyway). And 7 and 9 as you say were vmuch about their apparent "shadows"... bit of a "tremp d'oeil", as I think you say over your way, and part of the general idea of the set of (mostly) connecting the foreground to the background, the present to a (hopefully rosier) future.

Thanks again all for taking the time and trouble to leave thoughts and comments. Always appreciated my end. Have been very busy indeed with the camera over the last few months on various ideas... just a question of working through everything my end and putting some sets together... eventually!

Best