Tulips on Fire

 Ironically, the first day of spring just has to snow. There was a last minute storm, causing an early dismissal from school. There's about 4-6 inches, and it's pretty heavy-packed snow. Perfect for snowman's and snowball fights, yet it invites itself on the first day of spring! The weather was warm the whole week,(in the 50's), yet the first day just has to snow. Good sign?

Here is an overview of these red-yellow tulips we bought about two-three weeks ago. So the bulbs come in a glass vase, no soil. It's by a company named Bloomaker. They innovate bulbs to just grow off of water and sunlight. The flowers also stay longer than usual and can be replanted in fall time. I though it was pretty cool, especially because the vase was glass, which means you can see the roots, bulbs, and water level. We bought it, and within a few days, it started blooming.  

  

The trick is that you should rotate the vase quarterly or halfway once a week. It's kinda hard to not keep your hands off of the vase and flowers when you look at them. So the vase would keep moving pretty much everyday. Rotating distributes the sunlight evenly to all of the flowers. Touching it every so often a day interrupted the amount of sunlight each flower got. Which eventually caused the tulips to bloom at different times. 

This picture actually still really irritates me. Why? You can't see the center of the flowers. It's close, perhaps just an inch away, but you're just not able to see the middle. 

Ahh finally, the center. You have a clear view of it. Remember that you should off-center you subject. Now I made my subject all the way on the righ-bottom corner. It makes the viewer to look all over the picture and see all the details, instead of a glance.  

In the sea of red-yellow, we have one shy stalk of green. I forgot to mention, these tulips look like they're on fire. The colors, red in the middle coming out to a yellow, resembles a flame almost perfectly.  This lonely stalk of green in the middle looks like this lone survivor in a fire. 

Now I had a hard time taking pictures of these tulips. I took tons and tons, but I think the major problem was that the lighting wasn't right. I took it in different places, at different angles, with different lightings, but these flowers were a slight challenge. To be fancy, I even tried a mirror. So in this picture, you have the flower on the left, reflecting onto the right hand side. It's hard to tell that it's a reflection from the angle I took it at. 

So i've just learned some botany, specially for this picture. I'll teach you the different parts of a tulip. First off, we all know where the petals are. Those are the red-yellow colored "leaves" you see on a flower. In this picture, it is surrounding the middle. The white thick stalk you see shooting straight from the middle of the tulip is called the pistil. The very top of the pistil, the curvy white chunk you see, is called the stigma. The stigma captures the pollen from various sources. The style is the long tube that connects the base (where the eggs are stored) to the stigma. 

The stem like structures, surrounding the pistil, are called the stamen. The stamen actually reproduce the pollen and consists of two parts. The very top portion of it is called the anther. This is where pollen gathers and where bees pollinate. The stalk underneath is called the filament. When insects pollinate on the anthers, it shakes off some pollen onto the stigma or other flower's stigma's. Wind can also transfer the pollen as well. The stigma then collects the pollen and germinates. Pretty cool huh? Oh and ironically, the word of the day for March 20th, 2015 on dictionary.com was anthesis. It means, the period or act of expansion in flowers. Fits perfectly!

Now that you know the anatomy of a tulip, we can end the cycle with the wilting of these tulips. These tulips, after two-three weeks, have the weirdest way of dying. I've never seen a single flower like this before. So what happened was that the petals of the tulip bloomed, but it kept extending out and out and out. Until you see it like this and in the picture right above. The petals went past a 180 degree and are now drooping and falling off. Usually, petals just wilt at their highest blooming point, and then it just falls off. Despite it's way of ending it's cycle these flowers were very very pretty to see. Interesting start to spring!

Locked at Home

Living in northeastern, USA, snow is a common, hapless event. Just recently, on March 4-5th, was the big storm of the season. And it's quite late too, because it's in March, the end of winter.  We always get at least one to two big storms a year, where it snows close to a foot. But this year, this was the one and only nasty storm. Named Thor, the storm came on a Wednesday night and vanished by midday Thursday. That meant, no school Thursday and Friday because it was apparently too icy on the roads, along with the 7-9 inches of snow on the ground.  

The snow was a little wet because it wasn't very very cold. Which meant that the snow turned to water on the windows quite quickly. And actually, I tried to take pictures of outside, but I couldn't get the camera to focus outside because of the droplets on the window. So, why not take pictures of something it can focus on? This was taken at a slant, meaning that the lens was closer to the window on the left side, over looking onto the right side. 

This is just about the same picture as above. Except, I didn't angle the camera. It's just a straight view of the droplets. I think it looks cool because the droplets are very distinct and sharp. It's not smothered over the window and neither is it in icy chunks.

It looks like there are more droplets doesn't it? I would say this is more of an illusion. I backed up just a bit, which allowed the camera to focus on the net as well. And now, you can see that there are three layers: the window with the droplets, the net underneath, and then the landscape outside. 

I tried and tried to get a shot of the snow falling. I wasn't so sure on how to make the camera focus on the snow and not the trees in the back. All I know was to at least keep the camera on action mode, so that it could capture quick movements without blur. I captured the flakes here, but I'm still not sure how I did it.

This shot is just weirdly unique. How so?  I did use a filter on the camera, which allows me to get the pictures to be vibrant and more sharp pictures. But it's unnaturally sharp. You can see the exact figure of the snowflakes, like little specks. Compared to the previous picture, where there is less definition on the snowflakes, this one has a lot more. 

This is the same tree as above. I centered this one more, leaving out the tree on the right out of the picture. Then, once again, I tried to capture the snow. Now this tree was very far from where I was standing, so I did use my bigger lens. Which might have made a difference, because there is more snow in the distance between me and the tree. Which then would have let the camera focus on the snow in between instead of the tree. Again, I'm not sure how it worked, but it did somehow. Well, I'll have to wait until next winter to experiment on snowfall because winter is almost over now. I'm betting this was the last storm of the season. Time for spring!

Bringing the Desert Home

True story; we're growing cactus's that were bought at school. Only for a dollar! What's with all the botany recently? I don't know, but spring is coming up, and it seems like a decent time to grow cactuses in the house.

The tops of the baby cactus looks dangerous. Very dangerous. As if one touch could stick to you like a porcupine. But in reality, the spines, the scientific name for the "thorns or spikes", aren't very sharp. Against the sky background, the light makes the thorns/spikes color stand out. 

Yea there are a pair of cacti. In fact, these two remind me of the two chairs from the Disney and Pixar movie, Up. One fat chair and one tall one. This picture has a green plant background, something you don't normally associate cacti with. And it looks like I kept flash on when taking this picture, but its just the outdoor light from behind me. 

The colorful background is something new I tried. It's actually a bunch of gel pens in the back. In addition, I could've taken this picture from a lower angle. If you notice, the cactuses aren't exactly at eye level, but a little lower. You can tell becuase you can see the pot of each cactus. If I were at a 180 degree level, you wouldn't be able to see the pots. There's also an awkward gap on the left edge which could've been avoided as well. 

More Rosy Tulips

I actually took many more pictures of those Valentine's Day tulips. Here they are.....

It's quite hard to comment on just tulips, so I'll say a few words about each.

This was in the kitchen, and the background isn't black. It's actually the earth-tone black-splash. I wanted the colors of the black-splash to stand out more, but it looks fine like this.

I keep looking at this picture, because something looks out of place every time. I just realized it was the way the flowers look from the top. It looks so scrunched and uncomfortable. Yet, they look like they're about to blossom, but its actually ready to wither off.

The spotlight's on only one flower. How attention seeking. The lighting on this picture is first-class. I guess the one with the spotlight just has to get the best out of everything.

This looks like a good assortment of flowers, but one flower has the spotlight again. Actually, its the same flower as in the picture above. I took this picture against the couch, so you get a completely black background, which makes the flowers pop out.

Whenever I observe this picture, there's one peculiar idea that catches the eye. The petals looks like it's much too fragile and delicate. As if it was glass and one touch could destroy the entire bouquet. On top of that, the pair at the front looks translucent. I wonder what would happen if you shone a light through...

I never liked this picture because there's nothing intriguing about it, but that's my opinion on it. This was the watercolor effect on the camera itself. Maybe if the colors were outlined better, or there was something that stuck out more... it would appeal to me more.

These flowers were so smart. They played dead on us, just like animals do in the wild. Except these tulips are tamed extensively, so they should know better. I later figured out that there was no water in the vase, and they shot back up the next day, as if nothing happened in the first place. Some smart flowers we owned.

These were the final moments of the cluster. They completed their job so loyally, for two weeks, and died a hideous death. The petals withered and browned so dramatically. The next day, they were falling off. In this picture, you can see that the petals were already off on one of the flowers. They fell off one by one, and soon enough, all the stems were bare. No amount of water could bring back what was so dear to us, perhaps, until next year.

Valentine's Rosy Tulips

These are my wonderful pictures of tulips. The tulips were actually from Valentine's Day, which we bought for my Mom. I took these pictures on a Tuesday, three days after Valentine's Day (Saturday). So the flowers were still in decent condition. I should have taken them earlier, when the flowers were looking fresher. 

This is semi-closeup. I wanted to take those kinds of pictures that were close up and showed a lot of detail. Well this picture is pretty detailed itself. The front has great detail, with the back blurred.     

 

There's this vibrant mode on the camera. It basically brings out the color and gives it a serious boost, like jump to the moon. I also specially focused on the second tulip and not the one right in front. 

I have to say, this picture couldn't have turned out better, except for one thing. There's always that one thing that keeps things from being perfect, which is why the world isn't perfect. What might that thing be? The brown thing on the right edge, I don't even know what it is. Whatever it is, it should be cropped out because its a distraction from the epic subject. What's so great about the rest of the picture? The way the sunlight shines through the window and surpasses the tops of the tulip. 

Once again, everything has its flaws. This picture might just have two. The background is split in half, half the blinds and half the wall. It looks weird because it gives the picture two different oscillating feels. I could have angled differently so that the background was only one. Plus, the left most flower has too much light shining on it. It must have been the light from the upper windows. It looks really out of place because it's the brightest and only one getting direct light. 

This is also another close-up. When I was taking this shot, I noticed this picture would make a great background. 

This is a direct top view of the flowers. It's like a helicopter view of the tops of buildings. 

Moving on, this is a black and white picture. There are about 7 different effects you can choose between. The black-and-white option has an option of how strong you wanted the effect 

This was also with an effect called the "toy effect". That basically vignettes the edges and puts the picture under calm effect. 

The funny thing is that these flowers traveled all around the house. They were in a glass vase, so I was able to move them around and set them where I liked. I moved around and wanted to find a plain background. So I thought why not the white background outside? There was snow on the ground, since it recently snowed that day. Then, I opened the back door, placed the vase right by the door, and then stepped back cause it was way too cold to be taking pictures right by the door. I clutched my bigger lens, the one that can take pictures at big distance. I stood at the other end of the kitchen and snapped these pictures. 

I actually took this from the other end of the kitchen. And I guess the white background worked. Only if there was more light, but it was getting dark outside. 

The Greatest Show on Earth

Valentine's Day was spent in downtown Philly at a circus. It was performed by The Ringling Brothers who perform all over the USA, and around the world. That makes their logo, The Greatest Show on Earth.

So recently I got a new Canon camera and the circus was the first place I was able to explore the settings of the camera. I did a mistake by not taking my bigger lens because using the bigger lens would allow me to zoom in closer from a father distance. In all of these pictures below, I was at my highest zoom (55).

Taking pictures in a dark, indoor setting took a few test trials. I kept my shutter speed high so it could freeze the fast movements. I had to make sure there was enough light, so my ISO was kept at 800. This allowed enough light and clarity for the picture without a lot of grain.

The tight ropers are doing their final stunt in this picture. Unfortunately, I found it cheap that they tied down the middle of the rope. The middle of the rope is the trickiest part because it has the least support. It would have been a much better performance if they hadn't tied it down. It bothered me a little but by all means, if they need support, let 'em take it.

 Here we have the elephants, which also happens to be my favorite animal. The elephant trainer made them do all sorts of stunning tricks. Who ever knew an elephant can do it's own version of a headstand! This domino-climbing thing was their final act. If only that black rod wasn't in the way of my view.

These were some Mongolian stunters, who say they took years to perfect this one final act. If you look closely, it's a balancing human pyramid in which they said weighs 800 pounds in all. They also had this muscular man who lifted 500 pounds only with his teeth. You can kind of see him in this picture. He's the man wearing silver who has his arms up, looking at the sky, right behind the pyramid. It seems believable, right?

Here were other stunt performers. These peoples would fall off that top ledge and fall onto the trampoline. You can see one person already at the bottom of the trampoline ready to come back up. So they would do some crazy jumps and tricks with that basic idea. It looked like it took a lot of coordination because there were two of them who had to be synchronized. It should be a sport... synchronized trampoline jumping.  

Right after them were the BMX bikers. They did all sorts of tricks and spins and turns and jumps. Here, the guy is doing a 360 backflip. It took me a while to get a decent picture of a flip because I had to take the moment when they were upside down. Otherwise, you can't tell that they did a flip. 

The Black Effect

The Black Effect. Sounds so dramatic. Thing is, I don't even know if there is such a phenomenon as The Black Effect. I soley created it up here becuase it sounds effective for these pictures. Since I made it up, what do I mean by it? The Black Effect, in this case, defines as a silhouette that has been taken with movement.

What is this? A picture! Of course it's a picture, but what's the picture have on it? THE BLACK EFFECT! Haha, well there is a short story behind this picture. I woke up a lot later than expected, which meant I was late. I rushed and sped through my morning routine, and then hopped into the car. Literally. That's when I notice the beautiful sunrise in the distance. The sky was blasted with all sorts of colors. From the yellow-orange you see there, out to a purple. All those colors were just calling for a picture. Which meant I had to think of a way to enhance the colors a little bit, instead of just taking a plain picture of the sky. As I passed by trees after trees, I thought, why not trees? And here you see the colors beautified by the trees. The silhouette brings out the colors in the back, really making it pop out. What I did not expect was the show of movement. I expected the scene to just freeze, which would need fast shutter speed. You can see the motion with the blurred ground and even the slightly blurred trees in the back.

What do we have in this picture? Skiiers! Of course you see skiiers, but where are the skiiers? On a skii lift. And skii lifts are in motion right? Which leads us to... THE BLACK EFFECT! This picture has a short story as well... We were skiing and I took this picture while on the skii lift. My buddy next to me was creeped out because it was dark, the skii lift creaked, there were lights in intervals, and the lights were green! It wasn't really green but for some reason, it looks green here. Another question for you...did I take this picture in front or behind me? I took this behind me, which ended up being great for a silhouette. So where can you see motion in this? The right side is blurred ever so slighty. The lift wasn't going fast enough to get a good blur. Also, I edited this a bit. You can tell by the dust specks and the tear in the middle. I added those in, and it gives this old look.