Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Early Autumn Blooms


My garden, though still beautiful, is approaching fall and winter mode. There are less blossoms there although some flowers still put on quite a show - the pineapple sage whose bright red flowers always transport me in a good mood. Or the cosmos - like the one in the photo above. These flowers came up from seeds that I scattered randomly without any concern where they fell down or where the wind would carry them. These pink ones settled at the rounded corner where they mingle with the Mexican sage - purple, white, magenta and pink! It's a true feast of bright colors. The cosmos are very tall and one afternoon when the sun was already in the west and slowly descending to the horizon I noticed how wonderful this flower glowed against the background of the trees across the street. I couldn't resist and ran inside to grab my camera to capture this special moment. It was the light that did the trick of course.

I layered the photo with Kim's texture "artjoytexture" in blending mode soft light at 100%; then I imported it to Lightroom and played with it. I'm usually not a huge fan of really bright and bold colors to an extreme, but I made an exception here. I'm still a beginner with the new Lightroom. I used Lightroom 2 quite a bit when I had scanned my slides and organized them there. But now I have Lightroom 5 and there is a lot more going on. I hope I'll get the hang of it!

I'm linking to Kim's Texture Tuesday today.


13 comments:

21 Wits said...

Such a beautiful shade!

Beverly said...

I'm waiting for my first cosmos to bloom - hope to see them by the end of the week. Love your artful processing on this lovely cosmos!

Sally H said...

Gorgeous! I am still working on getting Autumn colour into my garden. It was very much a spring garden when we moved in, but we still have Michaelmas daisies and my Sally Holmes rose in flower

EarlK said...

Beautiful. Great color against the green background. Nicely done.

Dotti said...

What a beautiful photo! A real work of art. You're lucky you still have some blooms in your garden. Right now I can count on one hand what's still blooming in ours. Thanks for sharing yours!

Sharon said...

This texture adds so much depth to your image! I hope you enjoy exploring in Lightroom. I love to edit with it, but I know I'm using about one percent of what's there. Have fun!

elizabeth said...

I just love cosmos! I grew some myself for the first time.

Prairie Jill said...

Such gorgeous colours!!

Cheri said...

this is gorgeous! perfect for an art postcard... and room to add a quote if you wanted.

Jennifer Richardson said...

I LOVE this image!
What a fantastic idea, Carola.
So wildly inspired:)
BIG thanks,
Jennifer

Viv@Thoughts from the Desktop said...

Love your edit the musical notes look so good in the background.

Marilyn said...

I rather like this with the bright colors. And the texturing is marvelous. I'm falling in love with Lightroom. It took me quite a while and I still get frustrated, but it gets better every day, especially with Kim's help.

Magic Love Crow said...

I think this picture is gorgeous! I love what you did with the background ;o)