Home again and fortunately had reason to be downtown this morning. In the few days I've been away, the city has begun to bloom -- daffodils, tulips, these little grape hyacinths (I think) all over city flowerbeds and parks.
Now turning attention to getting ready for our move... despite a few hurdles that still remain, we have to get ourselves organized on the assumption that things will continue to move ahead. Eek!
I'm so impressed that they do these mass plantings in the city. They certainly look pretty and colourful. Good luck with your move. I assume the sale is going ok?
I do like the allegorical reference to the mass of bluebells representing people rushing through in the city. (am I overthinking it??!!) I wonder if it would have worked taken a little lower from within the bluebells to 'hide' the horizontal line of the cement planter of the tulip box?(so the flowers merge into the buildings) ??
Dras the eye right in. I might have preferred a bit more or perhaps less of the background buildings so the cement edge wasn't so close to the middle of the frame
@ltodd@jgpittenger You both hit on the one thing that has annoyed me in this shot -- that strip of cement. Lyn, I couldn't go lower as then I got the cement wall in front of me cutting off some of the flowers. Jane, I tried cropping it a bit, but then the stripe was right eye level (of what felt like eye level when I looked at it. I thought about cloning some of the flowers to cover it, but that seemed to lead to very obvious processing so I didn't do it. In the end, I posted anyway as I liked how it gave the avenue such a pop of color right down the center. Thanks as always for your views and comments. I wish I had a solution to the problem of the annoying line! Oh, and Lyn, yes, love the idea of the mass of people, but I hadn't thought of it...a great interpretation!
Ah, I guess you have to take the grape hyacinths as you can find them... they are lovely. When else can you photograph them? I agree, compositionally speaking, but you had a great low POV on this shot, which worked very well. You sound very busy... I feel your pain on that aspect, too. Hoping that the move can continue to move forward, too.
@taffy... :) .... could you lean over the wall and rest the camera literally sitting in amongst the flowers? If you shoot wide lens & prefocus manually f8 or more, you can get a shot with out having to see through the viewfinder? It is so close to being a great viewpoint...the hyacinths mirror the shape of the skyscraper too! this has so many things going for it....
Love seeing the beautiful Spring flowers in the urban settings like Chicago and New York. We don't have them so much in public settings in the LA area.
This is so beautiful! I love it when city councils plant flowers on the streets; it gives your eyes a good break from all the urbanisation and you have captured both in this lovely photo.
you're moving? wow that's a big change! same city or away? i love your shot. the cement divided doesn't bother me. The flowers are absolutely stunning!
@moreyoulessme Moving back to the condo we had rented while our house was being renovated after the fire we had in 2014. Long story...explained in the November 10 2014 entry and thereabouts in my main album. But we're excited to have reconstructed such a beautiful place, looks like it is sold, and eventually we'll move back to the other one (not too far away). Still some complexities (e.g., renters currently live there, could extend their lease).
Such a beautiful shot. Love all the color in the foreground. I do not know if I will catch up with you, but you are moving? When and to where? Will look back at your photos and see really quick what you are up to. Reading above this and see what is going on. I was wondering how long you would last in your place as you loved the condo and not sure you wanted the stairs any longer. Trying to remember but felt you were a lot happier in the Condo. Happy for you. So where will you be once you are in your permanent place? FAV for your photo.
@paulaw Thanks Paula! Moving as in moving back to the condo we rented after the fire -- the one in the highrise that doesn't have any stairs. So not a far move, but just more of not having been settled in for the past year and a half. We're excited the owner of the unit was willing to sell to us, but there are renters there now that legally can extend their lease for another year. We hope not, now that they know we are buying it and they cannot (they also wanted to buy it).
@taffy so you will sell where you are now if you can move to the newly bought condo? The place never felt like home after the fire or you fell in love with the condo? Hope everything works out the way you want.
@lesip we love how the renovations turned out actually. And love the neighborhood. But we have a lot of stairs and we found we really liked living on one floor. When the owner agreed we could buy it last fall, we decided to sell our place while everything was in top condition. While the one we are buying has a beautiful view, we will have some renovations to make it as nice as ours is now. But the time is right and we really liked that place a lot.
Bluebells are out here in the UK and I would like to capture them one day but I don't think my schedule will allow this season.