Springtiming

Wild Wisteria

Bees and Flowers

With all this regular posting on Project 365, it's hard to make myself post here too.  However, I still have loads of good pictures to share!  Shout out to my parents who just stayed a couple of days with us!  We had a good time.

Flowering Trees Pt. II

Dogwoods, Cherry Blossoms, and White Wisteria!!!

I'm in Production Week of La Dolorosa.  

Work all day, rehearse all night, sounds like a plan to me.

Carolina's Flowering Trees

Oh, the glorious return of internet!!!!

We now start the journey of catching up.  So much to catch up.  So. Much.

We start by identifying that spring is sprung.  It sneaked up on me, without me realizing that the winter had finished.  I guess that's not a bad thing.  But where did March go?  For that matter, where did February go?  This seems a common theme in my life lately.  Perhaps I work too much?  

I already know the answer to this.

This marks my first spring in Columbia, South Carolina, which has filled my life with so much beauty.  It seems that every single tree here flowers.  How wonderful!  So, I give you the flowering trees of Columbia!  A set of photos that is quickly growing with each beautiful day.

I believe these are Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees.  Notice the bees that swarm them.  

I got buzzed a few times taking these pictures.

Oh, Internet, how you allude me!

I'm currently stealing internet from Panera, but when I get my own (please be Monday, please be Monday!!!), I will recant methodically everything of importance.  

Well, maybe not everything.  But at least everything that I've taken pictures of.

Starting with this:

 

And my eye is much better, thank you.

Beauty in Small Things

like roses.

Snow Day!

Yesterday the skies in Columbia, SC dropped 4" of snow.  I spent an opening shift at Panera playing in the snow, snapping pictures, and gossiping with customers who were brave enough to drive in a grab some of our hot coffee.  It was wonderfully magical and beautiful!

  

I my have spent some time drawing the Mother Bread logo...

I had such a bonding experience with my staff, those that showed up.

I also had my first experience of living in a place where it snows.  This doesn't happen in Florida.  And driving in it, and having to scrape it off my car, and slipping in it, and how it changes the landscape into something much more beautiful...

More from this later, I promise! We'll see how driving tomorrow on all of the melted snow/ice goes...

Why Can't It Be Perfect?

I've had a slump in my photography lately.  This is mostly blamed on my monstrous work schedule, but some is truly my fault.  

I've been taking pictures of things, analyzing them, and casting them off.  They aren't up to my expectations.  They aren't good enough.  They are average.  When did I stop appreciating the unique capture of a single photograph?  When did I become a photo snob to myself?  I feel like I deserve some more credit than that.

For example, take this photograph of some sunflowers in my apartment:

Not so bad, right?  I had spent the entire morning trying to get the right light, keep the saturated colors from blowing out my focus, and keep from knocking it over.  I'm pretty clumsy.  But looking in my screen, I saw nothing I liked.  The focus looked blurred, the colors bleeding.

I get this critical perfectionism from my Mother.  It all started with science fair boards in middle school and has transfered on to the other aspects of my life. 
So critical.





 
It took a mind-clearing walk with my camera today to get out of it.  Walking along the sidewalk, I saw some cute purple flowers poking through the border grass.  I snapped a couple of pictures.  I figured the harsh afternoon sun would wash it out, but instead I looked to find delicately detailed macro flowers.

 

Nothing like the simplicity of the beauty of flowers to snap you out of it.


Here is the shot: