When a child is born out of wedlock they are known as a flower child. That is the polite version. More often than not they’re referred to as a bastard. I know I was called this by an aunt who felt my arrival would bring shame on the family. Nice to meet you, too.
The funny thing is, that I am totally down with being called a flower child. Not because it has to do anything with whether or not my mother was married when she got knocked up – that’s a load of crap for lesser minds to fixate on. No, I’m a flower child because I have been bonkers over blossoms for as long as I can remember.
We’re now nearing the end of the part of spring where trees have exploded with blossoms and I have to say that it hurts. I had wanted to get more photos than I have with my Helios lens, but… Wind. Cold. Rain. The weather has not helped. At least the high winds have only marginally damaged some trees – most of the trees downtown where still intact today and capable of being loved up by a lens or two. Losing this part of the year so quickly hurts. I spent all winter dreaming of it and now it’s almost already gone on me for another year.
So here’s a thing… I adore flowers and love to photograph them in their natural habitat. I strongly dislike bringing home cut flowers and putting them in vase. I find taking something beautiful and watching it slowly die until there is nothing left to do but dispose of the corpse depressing as hell. This puts me at odds with my wife who loves fresh cut flowers.
In any case, I made it downtown this evening for a quick bop around the blooms with my camera and it was grand. I can see that they’re starting to go, but I think I can get a few more days out of them and hopefully it will be enough to satisfy the flower child in me for another year.
I have plenty of other lenses to play with, my drone, and a major project coming online soon, so I’ll be staying busy as long as it’s warm out even after the bloom is off the trees.
Top three images made using the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 Full Frame Soap Bubble Bokeh Camera Lens, M42 mount on a Canon EOS R5. Remaining images made using my Helios 44m-2 58mm f2.0 lens that has the reversed front lens element for that whirly, swirly bokeh effect. It is also an M42 mount and both lenses need an M42 to RF adapter to hang off my EOS.