Dogwood...

[IzzieK]

Got two from yesterday's foray outside...as tulips had already been shown here, I have this beautiful dogwood tree beside our garage that flowers each year. I have pots of its babies down my deck at the back, hopefully I can get to plant them when they grow up a little bit more...

Anyway, one is in its natural colour and the other I translated to monochrome. Same shot but I tidied up the dots of pink from the petals as it might not look good in almost no colour. Both shots have minimal PP -- only crop and sharpened at the start and at the end after re-sizing...

C&C welcome...

1 natural colour:


2 monochrome: same shot but I tidied up the red spots on the petals for this shot.

[Stagecoach]

Very nice job on these Izzie, I especially like the mono version due to it's antique look. You did a good job of cleaning up those red spots, what were they?

I find it very rare here to find a perfect specimen of any flower other than weeds

Grahame

[John 2]

Couple of nice shots Izzie but yes, I prefer the sepia version as well.

[rtbaum]

Oh..How I miss these harbingers of Spring here the frozen tundra of Minnesota- Land of 10,000 lakes (but no Dogwood!). I prefer the color version. As a wee lad, when gas was cheap, my father would load the crew into the Ford Galaxie, hook up the travel trailer and we would drive through Indiana and into Kentucky to welcome Spring. Good times indeed

[TonyW]

These are nice. I find it hard to decide on a preference - they are just different. White flowers are hard to get right like this.

[Rita]

Very nice Izzie. I also prefer the sepia, well done!

[Brownbear]

Hi Izzie,

I prefer the colour version because you captured the colours of the flowers so beautifully. For me the colour version also shows more of the delicate detail and feel of the flower captured in the white petals and green stamen.

[IzzieK]

Very nice job on these Izzie, I especially like the mono version due to it's antique look. You did a good job of cleaning up those red spots, what were they?

I find it very rare here to find a perfect specimen of any flower other than weeds

Grahame

Thank you for commenting and your kind words...I think the red/pink spots are signs of immaturity. Not all of them have those spots. The ones I had chosen to grace my husband's desk do not have those spots. I always find some flowers around my garden to put in his desk from spring to autumn as I know he loves them.

The variety I have here is called cornus florida, the State flower of Missouri, also of North Carolina and the US Commonwealth of Virginia. The wood itself is hardy. The stems can be used as daggers, skewers and arrows. The dense part of the larger variety is valued for specialized purposes like cutting boards. Health-wise this variety we have here has been proven to prevent spread of malaria because the bark is rich in tannin and has been used as a good substitute for quinine. The leaves were used as poultice to cover wounds in the old days.
Source: Wikipedia http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornus_(genus)

[Shadowman]

Very nice, like the color version.

[IzzieK]

Thank you John 2, Rita, Randy and Tony for commenting. I truly appreciate this very much. After yesterday's and the other day's fiasco on my barn and the firetrucks, your comments made me alive again. At least this is one I do not have to reshoot.

Christina, I value your comments. You are too kind. It made my heart sings to read your compliments.

[Brownbear]

Hi Isabel,

And it makes my heart sing to know that I could make your heart sing...

Just when I was thinking of posting an old Tarantula image and dedicating it to you. Another day and time.

Thank you John 2, Rita, Randy and Tony for commenting. I truly appreciate this very much. After yesterday's and the other day's fiasco on my barn and the firetrucks, your comments made me alive again. At least this is one I do not have to reshoot.

Christina, I value your comments. You are too kind. It made my heart sings to read your compliments.

[NorthernFocus]

Beautiful blossoms, Izzie. Dogwood is my all time favorite tree. It is fairly prolific in wild form in my home state of SC. When I was a lad I was constantly in the woods hunting or just messing about. My mom liked dogwood so I would dig up wild saplings that would barely be twigs growing in the deep forest shade. Planted in the yard of my parents home they would grow like crazy, much faster and ultimately bigger than those brought in from nurseries. Thirty some years later when my parents both passed and we sold the place, it was a virtual dogwood forest with trees 20-30 ft high a foot thick at the base.

I miss them here in Alaska. All we have are Canadian (aka dwarf) dogwood that are a tiny ground cover plant rather than a tree. The natives call them bunch berry due to the bunch of bright red berries that replace the blooms.

In your list of uses you left out the legendary tale of dogwood being used to build the cross that Christ died upon. As the story goes dogwood were large trees in those days but ever since have been stunted to the version we now know and the flowers form a cross. It is said there is no basis to the tale but I've always liked it.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice shot Isabel ,I like both versions

[PhotoRob]

+1 for the color version - nice!

[rtbaum]

Isabel, you are wrong when you say you don't need to reshoot them.......You need to shoot them again and again and again.......

[FootLoose]

Nice work, Izzie. I prefer the colour version. You have good separation between subject and background, and the structure in the petals is clearer

[ShaneS]

Izzie, you captured the Provincial flower of British Columbia (where I was born) beautifully and like others I have a soft spot for this flower.

I prefer the sepia version as is but wonder if you desaturated the vibrant blue background of the first if I would prefer that version?

[IzzieK]

Thank you Dan ... I just love those interesting when I was young stories... like we have been here forever. Your mom's place must be teeming with whites during spring time. Yes, I inadvertently skipped that Jesus connection because if I mention that, my story will be longer. I was born and raised as a Catholic (now a recovering Catholic) so I am familiar with the dogwood connection.

Binnur, Robert, Randy, Shane and Greg. Thank you. I am delighted with all your comments. Thank you all for looking.

Randy, you are right, I seemed to be taking photographs of this tree each year.

And Shane, no -- there was minimal PP in those images as I was then waiting to download Nik Software Suite. The BG was a square piece of microfiber kitchen wipes I always have around here. I scotch taped two corners of it on the glass window to get a plain background.

[terrib]

Pretty pictures, Izzy. I am wondering how it would look if you could move your background back more to perhaps get an even softer, more blurred look. The flowers are nice and sharp but for me the background in the first one is pretty prominent.

[IzzieK]

Pretty pictures, Izzy. I am wondering how it would look if you could move your background back more to perhaps get an even softer, more blurred look. The flowers are nice and sharp but for me the background in the first one is pretty prominent.

Thanks Terri...will do. I appreciate your input.