Ginkgo leaves at Blandy Experimental Farm in Boyce, VA (I was trying out my new toy–a Nikon Coolpix P1000 with a 24mm-3000mm zoom!)
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Ginkgo leaves at Blandy Experimental Farm in Boyce, VA (I was trying out my new toy–a Nikon Coolpix P1000 with a 24mm-3000mm zoom!)
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
I shot this image at a rest stop in Arkansas en route home to Virginia this week. My friend Greg purchased the new Nikon D850 (which I have been dreaming about) and let me play with it on this trip. I knew I’d love it! Now to just find some spare change in the couch ($3,300 to be exact).
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved. iPhone 6s / Snapseed app border
All through the long winter, I dream of my garden.
On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth.
I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar.
—Helen Hayes
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved. (Shot with my iPhone 6, processed with Snapseed2)
Storm clouds on one side of the lake, sunlight from behind me illuminating the foliage…what a beautiful mix! I photographed this shot at Kingstowne Lake yesterday afternoon on a field photography trip with my friend Michael Powell.
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Raindrops on Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris) leaves, Green Spring Gardens
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
I think these might be ‘Black Magic’ Black Leaf Elephant Ears (Colocasia esculenta ’Black Magic’). I had never seen them lighted from behind, so I never knew they actually had more color to them than you can see on the surface! The photos below were of two different leaves from the same plant—the reddish-orange one had more indirect sunlight, while the top greener one had direct sunlight from behind. I find it fascinating that something that appears to be just a solid blackish-purple shade could be hiding a kaleidoscope of colors! Photographed at Green Spring Gardens
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Thanks to my friend (and new photo buddy), Michael P., for pointing out this photo op at Green Spring Gardens on Sunday afternoon!
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Photographed with my Nikon Coolpix L110 near Ladysmith in Caroline County, VA on 10.31.2011; the leaves are just beginning to turn
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
(unidentified), photographed at U.S. Botanic Garden. This plant was backlit by the sun, so what you’re seeing is light through the leaves.
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Since I haven’t been able to get my bounty of fall photos this year, I’ve made a collage of my favorite images from the past three years. These were all shot in various parts of Virginia, including my own neighborhood. Enjoy!
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Photographed in the lily pond outside the Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, 8.15.2010
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Water Lily
My whole life is mine, but whoever says so
will deprive me, for it is infinite.
The ripple of water, the shade of the sky are mine;
it is still the same, my life.
No desire opens me: I am full,
I never close myself with refusal—
in the rhythm of my daily soul
I do not desire—I am moved;
by being moved I exert my empire,
making the dreams of night real:
into my body at the bottom of the water
I attract the beyonds of mirrors…
—Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by A. Poulin
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Hey, this is a nice angle…lemme crop out that brown leaf on the left…and now wait until the sun goes behind that cloud…mmmm…nice and graphic…black, white, green, yellow pop in the center…let’s try a vertical…focus, click, view screen…nah, horizontal is better…focus, click, view screen, change aperture, focus, click, refocus, click, click…now if only a dragonfly would land right smack in the middle…then it would be perfect…oooh, oooh, a bumblebee!…quick, refocus, click! Just one shot before he buzzed away, but here it is. (Cropping it as a square made for a more dynamic image in this case.)
Ode Tae a Bumble Bee
Wee hoverin’, fleein’ ferlie fello’,
Wi’ yer stripes o’ black and yello’,
Yer ever sae bonnie, so ye ur,
Like a spring lamb—only smaller and withoot the fur,
But see if ye ever sting me oan the bum again,
Ah’m gonnae jump on yer heid so Ah um.
—Stuart McLean (from No’ Rabbie Burns)
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
The Dragonfly
Today I saw the dragon-fly
Come from the wells where he did lie.
An inner impulse rent the veil
Of his old husk: from head to tail
Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.
He dried his wings: like gauze they grew;
Thro’ crofts and pastures wet with dew
A living flash of light he flew.
—Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1833
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Michael models the boutonniere I made for him to wear at our wedding in October. The groomsmen wore them as well.
Craft notes:
Seafoam blue velvet ribbon hot glued onto brown grosgrain ribbon (all from Michael’s)
Velvet craft leaves applied at top of ribbons (from a great embellishments online store):
http://www.vintagevogue.com/onlinestore/item6846.htm
Copper wire and dyed freshwater pearls woven to form a bird’s nest and hot-glued on top of leaves—special thanks to blogger Cathe Holden for posting her great tutorial on how to make these sweet little bird nests:
http://justsomethingimade.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-wire-bird-nests.html
Fiddlehead fern-shaped swirl created out of thin gauge copper wire and tiny seafoam blue seed beeds, then hot-glued into place around the bird nest.
I made bird nests out of silver wire with seafoam blue pearls for the ladies in the wedding party. I didn’t have the loops made for the chains in time to distribute at the wedding. Check out more photos on our wedding blog. Many more photos to come!
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
The leaves on this tree reminded me of Lay’s potato chips because of the pronounced veins. I photographed this not-yet-identified tree this past week at Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
I shot these beautiful red leaves on one of the 60 types of Japanese Maple trees at Garvan Woodland Gardens on Lake Hamilton, surrounded by the Ouachita Mountains, in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Michael and I noticed the beautiful fall color around this retention pond—less than a mile away from our home—so we hurried back home to grab our photo gear and go back to capture some images. The light was glorious, the weather was mild, and the wildlife was most cooperative.
Last year the leaves peaked for us much later (Nov. 17), so one afternoon I took advantage of the perfect light and shot some images in our neighborhood. See those photos in my posting here.
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
GIVE ‘EM SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT