Spring Back

Daffodils

I fell in love –
Taken by the innocence of
Child-face daffodils:

Their perky April fanfares –
Clarion calls from yellow-ochre brass bands
Presaging, rejoicing, calling us:

‘Here we are! Here we are! ’

Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2010

 

Spring….each year it arrives later and later. Or so I think. Maybe it’s because Winter last longer each year and pushes Spring backwards into Summer.  Photographers look forward to Spring for the season’s color and the beginning of extended magic light at the beginning and end of days. I’ve found that local botanical gardens and the Public Garden in Boston offer some of the best photographic opportunities

Taken at the Tower Hill Botanical Gardens in Boylston, MA one Spring morning as this little guy ran up the path through thousands of daffodils. Tower Hill is one of the outstanding garden settings in Massachusetts and draws thousands of visitors annually.

The Swan Boats have been an institution in Boston’s Public Garden for over a hundred years. Each year thousands of folks and their families take the slow paddle driven voyage around the large pond in the park for a view of the beautiful lawns and gardens that are framed by Boston high rises.

Folks often ignore the graphics of photographs and images. Where one places and how one frames the subject frequently determines how compelling an image may be. In this instance I used one swan to frame the second swan and the curve of the swans neck is repeated in the image.

Georgia and the deep south are not the only places in America with Magnolia trees. These trees frame an entrance to a residence on Commonwealth Ave. in Boston. How nice it would be to enter your home each day by passing through a tunnel of Magnolias!

Another example of how the graphics of an image can improve it. Here the curved leading lines of the tulip bed leads the viewer right into the statue of our first president. There is a popular belief that the placement of the legs of the horse in equestrian statues have meaning. Supposedly a statue with one leg up (like this one) means the rider was either wounded in battle or died from battle wounds. Washington didn’t die from battle wounds and was never wounded in battle. So much for popular beliefs.

This is a great example of an almost good photograph. It would be much better if the green bush behind the woman with the umbrella was not there. It’s distracting. But sometimes you just have to take what the scene gives you.

This is a composite photograph and I’m never sure how I feel about it. The flowers are all presented exactly as they were in the scene. The background however was distracting so I removed it and place the blue background into the image. Now it has almost a painterly feel about it.

This little guy was speeding along on the path and I decided to help him out with the addition of contrails to further propel him.

Sailboats at the Lake Quinsigamond sailing center waiting for summer’s gentile breezes.

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Frank

Shrewsbury, MA