Brookside Azaleas

The azaleas were glorious at Brookside Gardens last week. The day was cloudy – the best we could do with the weather pattern that seems dominated by rainy days recently. I got 3 selective focus shots that I liked - successfully tricking the automatic focus algorithm of my point and shot Canon Powershot SX710 HS to create the image I wanted. There were dark pink with the same color blurred in the foreground and side,

Light pink with some purple azaleas making the blur in the foreground,

And yellow azaleas with yellow blur in the foreground bottom and sides.

I also tried pictures of azaleas with other plants – like these flowers that had fallen onto a bed of ferns

And some that were blooming next to a pine.

While I was photographing the azaleas near the pine – I noticed a relative of the azaleas that also blooms this time of year – a rhododendron.

Even though the clouds were pretty thick – it was bright enough to see the reflection of azaleas in the pond.

Everywhere we walked was full of azalea color. If it has been drier – the benches would have been used! Walking around it was still a celebration of springtime in Maryland.

Learning Log - April 2016

The majority of learning in April was experiential rather than formal course work although it seems that I always have at least one course in progress or scheduled!

I learned about mealworm cookies and Fresh Paper (for keeping strawberries fresh longer) while during my volunteer gig at my county’s STEM Fair and

Realized that I was glad cooking for 12 people was not the norm for me (it is quite a bit more work that cooking for 2-4) and

Was pleased that I didn’t panic when an opossum carcass turned up beside the stream where 7^th graders were going to appear to search for macro invertebrates in a few minutes (no shovels were available so we pushed the stinking mess into a bucket and dumped it into some nearby brambles).

I did take a macro photography class via Creative Live: The Art of Seeing: Macro Techniques for Flowers and Plants with Frans Lanting. I wanted the course on the day it was broadcast (and thus ‘free’) and then have been experimenting with selective focus since then. One of my first attempts is the picture below. It is fun to ‘fool’ the autofocus on my Point and spShoot camera (a Canon Powershot SX710 HS) into creating blurs in the foreground and background.

I also finished the second unit of the Soul Beliefs course available via Coursera from Daniel Ogilvie and Leonard Hamilton at Rutgers. I’ll do the third and last unit after the spring field trip season is done – maybe start in mid-June.