After work yesterday I was milling about my front yard taking in the fresh blossoms and the last of the late day sun. Three cheers for later sunsets. At this early stage of Spring my two callery pear trees are in their full blooming glory. As the fading light of golden hour was dancing on the blossoms I made a quick shot with my mobile phone for Instagram. Inspired, I thought let me grab my camera and make an even better picture.
Racing against fading light I grabbed my Canon, affixed my 40mm pancake, and fired off some shots. Sticking with a similar vibe from the cell phone photograph, I kept my lens pointed skyward, selectively focusing on the branch and blossoms at the bottom left of the capture. When it came time for post-processing I was running through some packaged presets in Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro 4. I happily settled on the film grain preset. I felt the high key treatment really brought out the pastels and subtle hints of yellow and gold from the departing sun, and the grain brought an appropriately aged feel. This type of photograph is a departure from my norm—making it all the more worthwhile. I hope you enjoy.
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