flowering lilac
our fragrant welcome to spring
atonement breathing
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Tag: lilac
Heaven Scent
Heaven Scent — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1000 
Green Sight
Green Sight — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/6400 Were I to see into the future would I make this photograph?
Would we do anything were we to see it beforehand? More so, would we have in our possession the power to stop ourselves? When and where would we even want to?
Does our seeing a thing stop us from tracking it? Does our knowing a thing irrevocably change its course? Does its future sprout a new one?
How can we know when our future is here? When the heart lifts and the gifts are easy, and you well know a place you’d swear you knew before.
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Love and Lilacs
Love and Lilacs — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/5000 Today marks 43 days at home. Am I hanging in there? Yes. Am I a people starved, in need of hugging and loving, and belly laughs with friends? Also yes. I wrote yesterday how all this time home has reconnected me to my macro flower photography roots. A blessing in all the isolated madness. Well this weekend my lilacs took their first step out onto the springtime stage. They are prepping for their proper debut this week. Before I trim them up to bring their unmistakable scent inside I will get my photo fill.
Instead of the 100mm macro lens I went with my beloved 35mm. It’s a versatile lens, one that affords landscapes, portraits, and even a floral still life. It’s the lens you take along if you can only have one. She’s a show off, too; striking sharpness wide open. Allowing the photographer to execute dramatic bokeh balanced against areas of sharp focus. It’s a dream to shoot and super fast. All I had to do was frame up a pleasing composition in decent sunlight and let the glass do the rest.
Love and lilacs. Lilacs and love. Pink and purple pastel beauties surpassed in sweetness only by their unmistakable perfume. Dating back to the ancient world purple marked out royalty. It wasn’t long before they cornered the market in total. In many cases outlawing its wearing to non-royals. And the Byzantine’s, well they were flat out obsessed with the color. To the block quote:
The reason for purple’s regal reputation comes down to a simple case of supply and demand. For centuries, the purple dye trade was centered in the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre in modern day Lebanon. The Phoenicians’ “Tyrian purple” came from a species of sea snail now known as Bolinus brandaris, and it was so exceedingly rare that it became worth its weight in gold. To harvest it, dye-makers had to crack open the snail’s shell, extract a purple-producing mucus and expose it to sunlight for a precise amount of time. It took as many as 250,000 mollusks to yield just one ounce of usable dye, but the result was a vibrant and long-lasting shade of purple.” — History.com
Thanks to nature purple is for the people; no reserved for the privileged few who managed the singular feat of being born of a certain line. Mother Nature loves all, blind to class and caste, and bestows her regal colors across the lands of even her most humble denizens. Love and lilacs always win and her purple is ours to behold.
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Lilac Boon
Lilac Boon — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1000 Breathe. Slow yourself. Inhale. Find yourself. Take in the soul stirring scent of lilac. Exhale. Calm yourself. Let the burdens of the day fall from your lips. The lilac boon is a perfumed pathway to rest and rejuvenation. It’s an essence of spring and its annual promise of renewal. The sweet bouquet infuses our air and our soul with the essence of all this world can be. Let it be a balm to your weariness and a fragrance forging our fortitude. So let the lilac’s joy dance upon the air, sweeten our souls, and open our hearts. And as ever, breathe.
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Scent to Delight
Scent to Delight — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/2500 As if summoned by the light of spring and carried upon the wind there came a smell so sweet. A crown of purple sat atop lilac bushes standing straight and proud about the marches of my backyard. A royal guard if there ever was one. Fresh as new life full of possibility and untainted by avarice and poor choice. A smell so sweet garbed in purple so pure on a bud so fleeting. It will only be a few short days that my yard will border in such well dressed, sweet smelling attendants. Oh most welcome of guests, it is my hope you do enjoy your stay.
But enough with the flowery language let’s get real. To start I am shocked that on this my 351 post to this website this marks the first lilac photograph. The first?! Suffice to say I would have lost this bet. Yet as I pored over empty archives reality set in. Better late than never, I guess. There are reasons. First, this is the best lilac bloom my yard has seen in years. Predating the January 2014 launch of this blog at least. Second, despite being one of my favorite flowers—both in look and smell—I find them a tough study. As a collective the buds grow to large size, while the flowers themselves remain quite small. This dichotomy has left me with many a mediocre photograph.
Yesterday busted the slump. Decent afternoon light was spilling in from the southwest as the lilacs neared peak bloom. I first made a picture with my iPhone. And how about portrait mode, huh? Silky smooth background fade for the win. Phones today, they make some pretty great photographs, you guys. With the cell shot as inspiration I went inside, strapped the 35mm on the rig, and set aperture wide open for some real deal bokeh action. This brings us here—my first shot of spring 2017. More to come.
To all my allergy suffers: I apologize on behalf of my friends.
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