Spring.

Finally we have some green leaves and lovely flowers to enjoy.   I have been busy working on submitting photos to challenges, so again have neglected my blog some.  (It's frowned upon to post photos while a challenge is going on, but by the time voting is over my brain forgets about the finished photos and is on to new photos.)

But today I ran out for a bit just to capture one of the few spring days we get in South Dakota.  I did not venture far, just walking around the blocks near my house.  But the new, green leaves seemed nearly fluorescent after today's rain, and two flowering bushes I noticed had some wonderful colors.

I wanted to see how a photo turned out with everything intentionally out-of-focus, that light coming through the leaves was just beautiful.  So here is my abstract 'spring tree'.

And then there is my second flowering bush shot.

I had a 50 mm 1.4G lens on for all of the shots.  Since it was cloudy and nearing sundown, perhaps I should have used a tripod because my focus on the flowers was not quite right.  (Although I also was playing with the F:1.4, so perhaps that depth of field was just too shallow.)  Proper focus seems to be my biggest stumbling block in taking pictures, although I know I'm not the only one who struggles with this.)

Finally, here is a leaf shot put through the Photoshop 'Flip N Blend' process.  Perhaps not a real winner, but I liked the colors and that there were still some leaves that could be identified.

Flip n Blend is extraordinary fun.  It's a complete mystery what a mash-up will look like until it's tried.  While today's attempt wasn't all that fabulous, I did have some luck last week.  (And one photo is still in voting, so you will just have to wait for that wonder - but here are two from last week that I thought were quite lovely.)

See on,

Julee