More Beauty Please

I have been spending several hours each day this week photographing the Japanese iris flowers that I bought on Monday. Today some of the petals are beginning to wilt and fade. But I still see beauty in their graceful shapes.

Today I made closeups with extension tubes and my 50 mm F/1.8 lens, allowing me to peer at a single graceful petal at a time. Their folds, curves, and sweeps of color fascinate me.

“Grace is the permanent climate of divine kindness; the perennial infusion of springtime into the winter of bleakness.”
― John O’Donohue, Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

I often play around with depth of field, wondering how shallow is too shallow?

And can a photo have too much in focus?

I’ve also been enjoying adding textures to my closeup photos today. Finding just the right texture to blend with an image is a process of trial and error. I try many textures and blend modes before I find one, or a combination of textures that I like.

This week I’ve spent about six hours a day making images and working with them on my computer. It’s my idea of heaven, being able to steep myself in the beauty and grace of flowers for hours a day.

“Frequently, beauty is playful like dancing sunlight, it cannot be predicted, and in the most unlikely scene or situation can suddenly emerge. This spontaneity and playfulness often subverts our self-importance and throws our plans and intentions into disarray. Without intending it, we find ourselves coming alive with a sense of celebration and delight. The pedestrian sequence of a working day breaks, a new door opens and the heart recognizes the silent majesty of the ordinary. The things we never notice, like health, friends and love, emerge from their subdued presence and stand out in their true radiance as gifts we could never have earned or achieved. Beauty”
― John O’Donohue, Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

Do you too, crave more beauty in your life? Can you slow down and discover beauty in your surroundings today?

May you walk in beauty.