Iris

It was rather windy today, but we all noticed that the irises on the corner of our property was blooming. It looked a little wind blown because it was just that, very windy today. But, the yellow and purple was absolutely beautiful!

Bleeding Hearts

I told you I was going to run over to the nieghbors and check out their color :)! Sure enough they have this beautiful bleeding heart plant in their rock garden. I can't beleive that I haven't planted one in my yard yet....it is amazing!!! I took a ton of pictures and loved each and every one of them.

...additional engagement photos!

I really loved working with the pictures I took of Andrea and Arnold. I played with them, messed with them, tweaked them...yeah, I tried every action I had downloaded from Coffee Shop Photography. It was a very fun experience. Did it help that my subjects were amazing...I am sure of it!

Here is a long line of pics I took (sadly, it is not all of them!) that I thought turned out wonderful. This one at the top is almost my favorite, there is another one further down that I will committ to that claim. Enjoy them all though!

I actually love the original one that is in full of color of this one, but somehow the softness of it with the love between the couple...it just works for me!

I was a little surprised by this one below being my favorite since I am such a color hound, but this one in black and white moves me. We had taken pictures similar to these and when we went back to the computer to check them out, they were gone...we loved the thought of them so much that we went back and took a few more. I am so glad we did, I think they turned out great!

I know you already saw this one, but I just love how it looks like vintage painting!

The final stages of my flowering crab...

Here is my flowering crab on Tuesday afternoon...beautiful and more beautiful.
It always brings a little sadness to my heart when the flowering crab starts to fade from dark to light. Sure enough by Thursday now it is already fading to this light pink and many of the blossoms have blown off. I hate that within a weeks time they have gone from gorgeous to faded... I better start looking for the next flowering plant for the spring...I shoudl go and check out my neighbors yard, LOL!

It always brings a little sadness to my heart when the flowering crab starts to fade from dark to light.

Engagement Photos

I had my very first opportunity to do an engagement photo shoot. I had a blast taking my neice Andrea and her fiance Arnold's pictures and they were more than willing to play along with my whims. Here is just one of the many pictures I took of them. Honestly, they were the most photogenic people I have ever taken photos of...what a fun treat!!! In regards to color....yeah, it was a gorgeous day and the great sky with the spring greens were the perfect back drop!

Flowering Crab

This is indeed one of the most beautiful trees (in my humble opinion) that I have ever seen! Flowering Crab trees have the most amazing, amazing, amazing blossoms. On top of them being beautiful there is an amazing abundance of blossoms. Only some of them are fully open right now and I can't wait to see it in a few days! Plus, they smell amazing...even the bees think so!

I love the dark pink of the tree in my yard, but the white one at my sister's house has it's own beauty! I may share some pictures of that one in the coming days.

This tree is actually very special too. My step father's grandma was the originator of this special tree. On the family homestead lies the original, but everyone has been able to take branches from it and root it and then plant it elsewhere...such as my very own yard. My step father had tried planting one in his yard at the same time as mine 6 years ago...can you beleive that it started as a twig just 6 years ago? In any case their tree didn't survive, but mine has grown in amazing proportions. Yeah, before you know it they may be back to try a branch from mine to grow one for themselves.

Enjoy the lovely colors though of the one in my yard.

...more from Mother's Day

I wanted to revist a few more pics I had taken on Mother's Day in my search for color. Mother's Day started off cloudy and cold and I was pretty sure it would be the first Mother's Day in 10 years that wasn't gonig to turn out...well, the Lord provided yet another beautiful day. By the time the morning had come to an end it was sunny, warm and beautiful!

There was also plenty of pretty flowers to take pictures of since my mother works in a greenhouse and had brought some to share with us. Aren't these just amazing...the many shades of pink in one little flower amazing me!

I had fun experimenting with family pictures and wanted to share this one of my daughter Clarisse. It was exciting to use this old red bed frame with her photoshoot. I think that is what is enjoyable with photography is that anything can be turned into a wonderful tool for brightening up a photo.

I also grabbed this abstact photo of a wind mill in my parents back yard. I love how the bright and detailed it is with the blue back drop from the wonderful sky that day.

Yeah, I hope you enjoyed Mother's day as much as I did!

Mother's Day and Amazing Color

Have you noticed how quickly things are changing here in Minnesota? Yep, the leaves are coming and the early flowers are here! I love to see all the beautiful colors bursting forth now. Each week I am sure we will see new wonderful colors coming that will need to be documented :)!

These pictures were taken at my mother-in-law's home. She has definitely given a lot of thought over the years on what to plant so that she can enjoy wonderful, beautiful, amazing color ALL summer long. Of course, I think she did it all for me so I would have them to take pictures of, but that really is a little selfish now isn't it?

What about you? What have you planted in your yard that has inspired your passion for color?

Tulips...finally true signs of spring color!

I have yet to plant the lovely tulips in my own yard (really, I should do this!) to enjoy, but the neighbors across the street have done just that! I asked them ahead of time if I could take pictures of their flowers when they begain to bloom and they didn't mind at all (I am so thankful as they are so pretty in their simplicity!).

Here the tulips are on a Saturday afternoon...just about ready to open up.

The following day, the sun was shining and the tulips had taken over to full bloom! Beautiful!!!! I think that tulips in the spring are such a wonderful love sign from the Lord... especially for us northerners who have been hit with the black, brown, whites all winter!

What I thought was interesting is that with all the blooming tulips in a row, there was still this one lonely one that hadn't experienced full blooming yet. I am sure it was beautiful when it finally opened up, but I do find it interesting that all the others knew to bloom on time and this one didn't!