fourpointedstar

I don’t ever shy away from editing an image from cropping to color correction to contrast; I almost never show an image before editing.

But every once in a while a scene presents itself that needs no editing, like this one. I did crop this, my lens simply didn’t have the reach for the crop that I wanted; and of course, I changed it to black & white. Some won’t like this image, even more will find an aspect to critique; and that’s fine, after all art is subjective.

I love converting photos of ferns to monochrome images; they’re almost monochromatic already, simply shades of green. However, in their full color, you can enjoy the yellow and red shades within the greens, as well as the brown details in the fibers and stems. For this curly image, I really enjoyed the peach-fuzz underneath the plant that you wouldn’t normally see.

One of the beauties of nature is the joy of looking closer. Not only does this fern remind me of nature’s zipper, the closer that you look at the plant, the more you can see and learn; the strands on the branch, the spots and texture on the fronds as well as the serration on the edges of the branches.

Growing up, my Mom always had Christmas cactus, and if I remember the original plant may have come from her brother had quite the green thumb. I definitely remember playing football in the house with my brother and knocking the plant over and the blossoms falling off and KNOWING that we were in so much trouble.

But when I told my parents that Sarah and I were moving in together, my Mom gave Sarah a cutting of the Christmas cactus as a “home warming gift”.

There is not much to say about this image; I love its simple composition.

I guess I’ve never really paid attention to the spines on various cactus plants, but I have definitely never noticed a cactus’s spines that are quite as curvy as this cactus’s are! I love the almost “barrier” like feel to the repeating leaves, if that’s what you would call them, and the repeating pattern makes me wonder if there’s a mathematical system behind their arrangement.

Photographing ferns is a bit challenging; almost like a monochrome image. There isn’t a flower for color or the contrast of bark and leaves; but while a fern may lack in color and contrast, it excels at texture and shape. I love the weave and repetition of these leaves!