Fleeting

Azaleas continued. Trying on a different hat, this spring I have been photographing ten score more flowers than I have done in the past. I find that flowers are uniquely malleable in post-processing, offering up interesting portraits through various techniques. But for today, I went with the grain and kept these relatively SOOC with color and lighting tweaks here or there. I was targeting azaleas this spring as when they bloom, they are nearly obnoxious in their abundance. In a matter of days, the shrubs will go from green with subtle bulbs to a bombastic front with bundles of flowers swarming each limb. The petals are thin as tissue and once they are in bloom as above, one hard rain shower will usually send them all away…as I learned this year. I photographed these one evening and then we were hit with two days of rain and wind. I then brought my kids to this area for some portraits and the bushes were bare. I took these maybe two weeks ago and one would never know they bloomed at all this spring.