Curiously Crafted Creations: Spring Photography

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Spring Photography

It's been an unseasonably warm winter here in New York City, and while I'll admit I miss the snow, I can't deny that with everything else that's been going on in my life it's been nice not to face lots of freezing cold days and slippery sidewalks.

I've really not had the photography bug of late, and it's worried me. I feel like I've made it too much like work (like I've done with so many other things) as I've striven to only take really good pictures, and that I'm very hard on myself when I get home and, "oh, it's out of focus!" "oh, it's crooked!" "oh, I could have done so much better if only I'd..."

I want to get away from feeling that way. I wanted to remind myself of what I like about photography. Thursday was in the mid-fifties here, and with that gorgeous sign of spring just around the corner, I decided to go for a walk in Central Park and see what I could see. I'd already seen ample evidence in the preceding week that even though it's only late February, spring was really starting to be sprung, so I went hunting for spring flowers. (primarily in the two place I expected most to find them: the Shakespeare Garden and the Conservatory Garden). I wasn't disappointed...

View of the lake, the bridge, with the Central Park South skyline in the background. Okay, I promised flowers, none yet, but give it a few shots. ;)

Squirrel seemed pretty happy with those red berries all over the ground...

Central Park South again, pity I couldn't get any ducks in this shot, there were a bunch around just hangin' out.

I found this wish tied to a tree. To whoever wrote it...I hope you will, too!

Hellebore was blooming all over the place, but as is so often the case, I found it very hard to get a good shot that really showed off how beautiful this flower is...

There were snowdrops. Oh, were there snowdrops. :) There were also crocus, irises, forsythia, some stuff I couldn't name, and - in very sunny spots - daffodils! In FEBRUARY!

Anyway, I've also been VERY good about labeling pictures on Flickr this past week. I've just been plowing through old sets; I'd estimate that I've gotten through around 1000 pictures just this past week! If I can keep that pace up, I'll be caught up by...er...sometime in the summer, I guess. Well, that's a sobering idea of just how far behind I am! However, as of now, I've labeled every picture I've taken in 2012 - which isn't saying much, since I haven't taken that many - and I've "only" got 31 unlabeled sets from 2011 (comprising a few thousand pictures). 2009 and 2010, I'm still plenty behind on - but even that, I've chipped away over this past week, tackling some of the sets that have been lingering longest. lol, at this rate, I'll soon have labeled all the pictures I took in Puerto Rico, three years ago February. Well, it's something. ;) It'd be nice if I can get to the point that I'm less than three years behind (I remember, back in 2009, the goal was to not be ONE year behind! Those were the days!). While pursuing my goal of catching up (last year, this time, I was hoping to catch up before I hit 2,000,000 views on my Flickr account. Well, that didn't happen. This year, I'm hoping to catch up before I hit 3,000,000 hits - which is still 4 or 5 months off or so...) I ended up labeling some spring pictures from last year, which reminded me of what I have to look forward to in the months ahead. There were lots of daffodil and tulip pics, but I don't know, those somehow never turn out quite right. They never capture the essence of that marvelous thing that IS a daffodil. But there were a few others I thought were good...(these pictures were ALSO all taken in either the Shakespeare Garden or the Conservatory Garden in Central Park...)