Project 365: Sunshine, rain and dewdrops – a drippy kind of spring

we are at the end of the first week of May, and the leaves are still not quite unfurled from the trees. It’s the first week of the Tulip Festival here in Ottawa, but there are hardly any tulips in bloom. It’s definitely been a wet, cold spring here.

A lot of the week looked kind of like this. This is the red maple in our yard during one of the seemingly endless showers last week, just thinking about sending out some leaves.

And this guy is either a really red crocus (based on his size) or a really tiny and early tulip. He’s another gift from the garden.

Okay, so it didn’t rain the *whole* week. I shot these daffs near Watson’s Mill, and was delighted to catch that crazy triangle of flare. Erm, I mean, I totally planned that effect, right from the start. (!)

You know what I don’t think I’ve ever shot in the thousands of pictures I’ve taken over the last few years? A shadow portrait. This is me and the boys, out for a post-dinner walk.

Speaking of boys, you didn’t think I could go a whole week without pointing my big black monocle at them, did you? I love this one because I caught a *genuine* smile instead of a “humouring mom so she’ll leave me be” kind of smile. 🙂 I shifted myself up and down as I was composing this to make that shadow area end more or less at his shoulders, so the dark area would frame his head and accentuate the rim lighting that’s highlighting his hair. (I don’t know why crazy hair seems to run in our family!)

This wasn’t even supposed to be a 365 picture. I’m helping a friend by creating a website for her cooperative child care centre, and we needed an image for a banner. In the end, I didn’t even use this, but I loved the fact that when I went to the crayon bin I found all these nekkid ones — Lucas has been busy at work peeling the wrappers off them.

I was inspired to take this picture by one of my favourite photography blogs, MCP Actions. Jodie has great tips, tutorials and actions for photoshop and photoshop elements, and has been encouraging her readers to join her with a photo-a-week “Project 52” with a weekly theme. Last week’s theme was “first thing in the morning” and I thought this picture was perfect for the theme.

I looked out the window early Sunday morning and saw the lawn twinkling with a heavy dew, so I grabbed my camera and ran out in my bare feet and jammies to capture this. I opened up my aperture as wide as it would go and held my camera right above the grass. Those round circles you see are the out-of-focus points of sunlight in the dew drops, called bokeh. It only took two or three shots, and I knew as soon as I saw the viewfinder that this was a keeper.

Turns out a few other people liked it, too! Not only did MCP actions feature it as one of their photos of the week, but it’s been bouncing around in Flickr’s Explore all week, and is my most “favourited” picture ever. (It kinda makes me laugh, because I still think the photo of Lucas jumping in the puddle is a WAY better picture, and although it had even more comments and faves to start, it never made it to Explore.)

If you want to take a shot like this, all you need is a dewy patch of lawn and an early-morning sun. Set your camera to macro (the little flower) if it’s a point-and-shoot, or to your widest aperture (smallest f-stop) if it’s a dSLR. Make sure you are facing right into the sun so you get the maximum twinkle, and focus on a spot about 1/3 of the way into the frame.

And this week also happened to contain the end of April, so here’s my monthly mosaic of all the pictures I shot in April. (A few of you have asked how I make these. There’s a mosaic-maker at www.bighugelabs.com, and a handful of other fun things you can do with pictures, too!)

Despite being a long, slow and decidedly wet month, it’s kinda pretty in retrospect, isn’t it? Here’s to a warmer, dryer and equally lovely May!