softfocussaturday

Spirea Bouquet (with Bug)

Posted by Ellie
Spirea flowers in multiple exposure - Ellie Kennard 2016
Spirea flowers in multiple exposure – Ellie Kennard 2016

I love how white spirea blooms can completely fill a hedge and brighten up a late spring landscape. When the bushes are left to grow, they reach quite a height and are a mass of tiny white flowers. I tried many times (on this and other occasions) to photograph them, using my macro lens as they are very small, but a documentary photograph did not seem to do justice to the profusion of blossoms. A macro lens multiple exposure seemed to give a much better representation and it even hides a tiny bug in the middle of it (if you can see it!).

We have a hedge right in front of my kitchen window, which is where I took this photograph. All through the rest of the year we find the shrub a nuisance and threaten to pull it out, but when it is in bloom, I love to see it.

Enjoy your week everyone!

View the blur gallery below for more multiple exposure images:

Continue reading →

Striped Squill (Puschkinia scilloides) Frovolity

Posted by Ellie
Striped Squill (Puschkinia scilloides) Frovolity – Ellie Kennard 2016
Striped Squill (Puschkinia scilloides) Frovolity – Ellie Kennard 2016

This is a flower that I love to see in the Spring as it always reminds me of white and blue striped pyjamas. This year I decided to photograph it in a multiple exposure and think that this really accentuates the lovely airy impression.

I am really enjoying making my series of multiple exposure flowers and I hope you enjoy my shares of them. You can see them in my gallery on my website (in a larger size, too) here:

Have a wonderful week!

 

Light in the Shadows

Posted by Ellie
Light in the shadows - Rhododendron impressions – Ellie Kennard 2016
Light in the shadows – Rhododendron impressions – Ellie Kennard 2016

The wonderful thing about our rhododendron bushes is that they grow in shady areas under trees and give unexpected bright spots of colour. In these darker locations there is not much natural light to use in photographing them which can make it harder to get a good photograph of a single hidden bloom. On top of that there is often a breeze when the sun does fall on them, so they are moving with small flashes of light in the shadows. I have tried before to get a multiple exposure of one of the light ones and this year I managed to catch the airy patterns and petals.

 

Impressions of Magnolia Blossoms

Posted by Ellie
Impressions of a Magnolia Flower- Ellie Kennard 2016
Impressions of a Magnolia Flower- Ellie Kennard 2016

Seeing the beauty in the flowers of the magnolia tree here is one of the wonderful early spring pleasures we have. The sadness is that they last for such a short time before a wind, or the rain, or even a frost, tinges the edges of those large but delicate petals with brown and scatters them in a pink and white carpet beneath the tree.

During the stages of the magnolia’s flowering, there are some of these in full bloom, while some are just opening up. Still others have lost most of their petals, exposing the intricate reproductive parts, male and female. While it can be instructive to see documentary images of each of these stages, I love to see a single depiction that illustrates in a more poetic way each of these phases together. This is a multiple exposure of several flowers blended together to give an impression of the life of the magnolia flower.

Check out the full blur gallery here: https://elliekennard.ca/ekgallery/when-life-is-a-blur/