A little spring happiness at f/2.8

The garden is waking up...and today in the midst of email and editing and preparing for students and wedding album designing, there came a moment when the call became too strong to resist.  A rainstorm was whipping itself up, and the breeze was rushing past my window, and the daffodils and pansies were saying, "Come out and play!"

So I armed myself with a suitably wide-apertured lens (is that a word??) and spent the next fifteen minutes happily wandering among fresh sprouts poking up from brown earth and tiny flowers unfurling.

Nothing says "spring!!" like a brilliant yellow crocus.

 And around here, this yellow means spring, too.  ;)  And lemon bars and custard and other yumminesses.

 Forget-me-nots...

 

These humble sprouts will be incredibly ostentatious tulips in a month or two.  Small beginnings...

I think kale is awfully artsy stuff.  I guess maybe I can identify with its curly-ness.  ;)

Calendulas

This incredible beauty is helleborus, commonly named "Lenten Rose".  They're very modest little flowers, blooming with their heads bowed downward.

To me, this says "hope": an old rosebush, pruned in early winter, putting out sprouts.  In May the bush will be covered with apricot-pink roses.

I love shallow depth of field.  All of these photos were taken at f2.8.  A wee bit of sharp focus, with blurriness before and behind...truly entrancing.  I think it's the blurriness that I love so much.  It's soft, smooth...and mysterious.  You can make guesses about what it is.  But usually you don't really know.  Just something that looks good, blurry.

Isn't that life?  Sometimes the blurry things make other things stand out in sharp focus.  When you're sick, you appreciate the gift of health so much more. When someone is unkind to you, you're all the more grateful for those who ARE kind.  When you see how much you need God's mercy...you see what a merciful, faithful, infinitely patient God he is.

Till next time, friends!  Happy spring!



- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
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Perspective

Perspective makes all the difference.  I bet you've heard that a million times, right?  :)  But it's so true!  Here's an example.  Check out this photo of the Merced River -- one of my favorite Yosemite photos:

It's a frequently-photographed spot.  Lots of people stop here on their way around the valley.  The tour buses always pull in here too.  But I like to think my photo is one of the more interesting ones from here...in large part because of the perspective.

To get the cool rocky foreground, with the still water reflecting the sunset glow on El Capitan and the Cathedral Rocks -- well, you've got to do a little work to get that.  I had my tripod down as low as it would go, its legs spread out partway in and partway out of the water, while I squeezed myself in between the rocks and mud, clutching a graduated neutral density filter in one hand (yes, I used to use those!) and my camera strap firmly in the other.

If you want cool perspective...you sometimes have to go places other people don't.  I didn't have any company down there in the amid the rocks and mud, we'll just say that!  ;)

A few weeks ago I paid Yosemite a quick visit (way too quick! but I did get a few good photos!).  The perspective was different.  It had to be.  This time of year, the water level is a lot higher!  I couldn't even get to the place where I took the photo above.  If you look directly in the center of this photo, that's the spot.  Of course, the water was lower then...but you get the point.  ;)

Happy to be here!  :)

This time, the lighting and water and greenery were all different, which called for a different perspective...so I took this shot from atop a huge dead tree trunk.  (Much easier than the photo above, frankly... ;)

Perspective...it's ridiculous how much it changes things for me.  Yeah, this goes way beyond photos.  Today I was thinking over this month.  I've had some great experiences and some pretty rotten ones in June 2010.  Sometimes it cracks me up how often my perspective can change a difficult experience into a good one.

You know the account of Joseph and his brothers, at the end of the book of Genesis, where they ask him to forgive them for all the terrible things they did to him?  He told them, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good."

I've been thinking how, for everything that takes place in my life, God and Satan have completely different goals.  If I listen to the lies Satan whispers in my ear, the results will be harmful, to me and others.  So often I catch myself listening to those lies -- I don't even realize it till I look at the fruit that they bring.  Discouragement, sadness, self-rejection, fear.  But if I remember the truths that my heavenly Father has lovingly told me, he will bring good out of even the negative things that happen. The things the enemy wants to use to damage and discourage me become stepping-stones to happiness in Jesus when I bring God's truth into the situation.  He says in the Psalms that "the entrance of Thy words brings light".  And it's the most amazing experience to see fear and gloom give way to His comfort, mercy, and love!

I've started keeping a collection of His truths right here on my desk, verses that speak to specific fears or lies that I catch myself believing.  And when I'm going through a difficult time, those truths are right there to pull me out of it.  Because he says:

"If you abide in my word,

you are truly my disciples,

and you will know the truth,

and the truth will set you free."

(John 8:31)

A true promise, for sure!  :)
- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

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A pretty peony

These luscious peonies are blooming just outside our kitchen window...half a dozen pale green buds have burst into huge pink delights that measure nearly 8" across.

I tell ya, the way spring is springing right now, I could post a dozen beautiful flower photos here every single day.  There is so much LIFE around.  The earth positively teems with it at this time of year.  The grass is covering the hills, showing up unwanted in our flower beds, poking through the cracks in the patio bricks...you just can't stop stuff from growing like crazy right now.

I think spring is one way God shows us the meaning of hope.  Winter is only a season; it's not here to stay.  The life that lies dormant during those difficult months patiently awaits the right time and then springs forth in all its beauty.  My life passes through seasons of joy and grief, fulfillment and emptiness, pain and rejoicing...things that often overlap each other...but always with His presence through every step of it, carrying me through the sad times and rejoicing in His goodness that's always here no matter what.

One of my favorite verses ever, from Psalm 27, sums it up:

"Wait on the Lord:

be of good courage,

and he shall strengthen thine heart;

wait, I say, on the Lord."

- Kelsey Schweickert


Discovering beauty...

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