Focusing on a Bradford Pear
Here in Georgia, we've had some absolutely beautiful sunny days interspersed with cloudy, rainy ones. I have been so enjoying getting out and taking photos on the sunny days of what's blooming so far.
The jonquils have come and are going. Just today tiny little blooms have appeared on the redbud and itsy-bitsy little green leaves on the early maple. The other maple has yet to show any. (They turn gold in the fall in the same order, one a week or two before the other.)
The Bradford Pears have come and unfortunately have gone in a matter of days. My neighbor's pears were just beginning to bloom on the last sunny day. I wanted to photograph them again in two or three days at their peak, but the next few days that were cloudy and rainy. By today, which was bright and sunny and perfect for photography, they had already turned green.
I was able to get a few good shots as they were just beginning to bloom. One or two good clusters of little white flowers were in reach for close-ups, although most of the ones I got I had to hold the camera above my head and hope I aimed in the right direction.
I love the way the blooms turned out in this photo, although I have to admit I find the diagonal slant of the out-of-focus branches behind it somewhat disturbing. I do like the bright blue sky in the background.
What do you think?
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(c) 2015 by Debbi Craton. May not be used without permission. All rights reserved.
OldRoadsOnceTraveled spring Bradford-Pear-Tree
Image Credit » Photo (c) 2015 Debbi Craton. May not be used without permission. All rights reserved.
Comments
Alexandoy wrote on March 24, 2015, 11:48 PM
Pardon my ignorance. Is that Bradford Pear only a flower or a flower of the pear fruit?
AngelSharum wrote on March 25, 2015, 12:03 AM
I like the blurry limbs in the background. Gives it an artsy feel.
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on March 25, 2015, 2:05 AM
It's a flowering tree, but does not actually bear fruit. You'll have to ask someone who knows more about trees than I do why it's called a pear when it doesn't have pears.
1OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on March 25, 2015, 2:10 AM
Normally I like the way the macro setting blurs the background, but this just feels a little weird to me. Probably because of the diagonal lines. I wish I'd had more days to capture blooms but they were going in an instant. Meanwhile I'm still able to play around with the focus on the yellow bells. They come out amazing when I blur the ones in rear.
Alexandoy wrote on March 25, 2015, 2:44 AM
Thank you for the info. I used to think that Sakura in Japan, a.k.a. cherry blossoms, were real cherry trees. But it turned out to be just that - blossoms.
iwrite28 wrote on March 25, 2015, 3:16 AM
Lovely picture and must saw you really love nature to notice all those leaves et al. Nice :)
jiangliu1949 wrote on March 25, 2015, 7:20 AM
My point exactly ! I love to see the blooms appear at my smartphone screen that flatters them in a way .I have took every photo of my potted flowers ,such as orchid,camellia and winter sweet ,etc.
LindaCPearson wrote on March 25, 2015, 6:03 PM
No signs of anything springlike here yet in CT. If you're into taking picture after picture of melting snowmen and dirty snow and winter in its agonizingly slow death process, pack Guiness in the car and drive up!!
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on March 25, 2015, 11:49 PM
I've been having fun taking spring pictures the last couple of weeks.
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on March 25, 2015, 11:50 PM
I think I must have taken thousands of jonquil photos this year. I wanted more of this tree, but that didn't happen.
1OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on March 25, 2015, 11:52 PM
I haven't noticed the fragility of the branches. It's my neighbor's tree, but it sits alongside our shared driveway.
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on March 25, 2015, 11:57 PM
Snow here doesn't last long enough to get very dirty. It's usually gone somewhere between two minutes and two days.
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on March 25, 2015, 11:58 PM
Dear Mildred the Cat's mom,
No thank you. I don't do snow and I don't do car rides.
Sincerely, Guiness the Homebody
BarbRad wrote on March 26, 2015, 2:34 AM
I like it. I have an album's worth of Bradford pear blossom photos. But they are leafing out here now, too. It's amazing how fast the oaks are beginning to green up.
BarbRad wrote on March 26, 2015, 2:35 AM
Actually it does bear tiny pear-like fruits that are about pea size.
jiangliu1949 wrote on March 26, 2015, 5:22 AM
Is the jonquil a woody plant ,instead of the daffodil ? Here we like to grow the narcissus .
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on March 27, 2015, 12:31 AM
A jonquil is practically the same thing as a daffodil. There's just a slight difference. I think they're both a type of narcissus.
1OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on March 27, 2015, 12:37 AM
I didn't know that. It's not my tree, but it is right beside my driveway so you would think I would have noticed when I walked by.
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on March 27, 2015, 12:43 AM
I have been meaning to do an oak tree post for you for a long time. I've taken pictures but forgot about writing it until I saw your oak tree photo on Tsu the other day. I started doing the post then, but I had just barely started sorting through dozens of pics and doing research when I realized this was going to take hours and it was already time I was in bed. I've got a lot of offline commitments the next couple of weeks, so I don't know when I will have time to do it, but I'm going to do it someday. I need to verify what type of oak mine are. Post oak, I think, which is appropriate because they were obviously planted as a fence line.
BarbRad wrote on March 27, 2015, 1:40 AM
Post it some Tuesday for treetuesday . You can post on my diary if you want to.
HappyLady wrote on March 27, 2015, 2:42 AM
I cannot seem to make the photo big, but it looks to be a nice photo to me. Here the blossom is on the trees at last, but pear trees are rare these days.
trufflehunter wrote on March 27, 2015, 12:40 PM
Lovely photo. I was wondering which part of it was a pear but nevermind :) I like how parts of the shot are unfocused yet you can still see the beauty of the flowers up close.
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on March 28, 2015, 1:12 AM
Right-clicking on the photo works for me in Chrome, but not in Internet Explorer.
Fleur wrote on April 5, 2015, 5:21 PM
I rather like those diagonal blurry branches. And you obviously did well at pointing the camera in the right direction!
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on April 5, 2015, 10:45 PM
I was using the macro setting on the camera.
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on April 5, 2015, 10:45 PM
Thanks.
Georgia_Gardener wrote on April 6, 2015, 6:49 PM
Bradford pear trees are beautiful...for about 3 days. I admire them in my neighbors yard, but I'm not a fan.
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on April 8, 2015, 12:34 AM
Surprisingly this year I didn't end up with a driveway full of petals. I don't know how that happened.