Out of the blue
Posted: May 15, 2012 Filed under: 365 Yoga Challenge, Adventures in Life, Air, Earth, Fire, goals, health, home, nature, Photography, pond, Spirit, Spring, Walking, water, weather | Tags: Blue, Color, flowers, Halo, John Ruskin, nature, Outdoors, Pansy, Photography, pond, spring, water, WP Weekly Photo Challenge 43 Comments
Halo around the sun
Blue color is everlastingly appointed by the deity to be a source of delight.
~ John Ruskin
I once explored blue as part of my color series on my other blog (you can find that post here). I also did a little booklet for friends and family about the colors blue and purple (available here if you’re interested). And now I get to explore the color again since the Weekly Photo Challenge is Blue.
Among favorite colors, blue is usually first in line. Blue is my second favorite color, purple being my first choice. Blue in nature is easy to find. All you have to do is look up.
Or down.
Pansy Glow
Our blue pansies continue to thrive which is surprising since at one point we thought they’d all died. M and I have been debating about whether or not to put in the usual impatiens or just let the pansies have their way, and the flower bed, this year.
They are not, of course, this blue. I set the white balance on the camera to tungsten. It made the pansies glow without any help from Photoshop.
The next one did have help from Photoshop. I used one of the artistic filters (dry brush) to give it a more painting-like feel.
So. Yesterday was not a good day for me. My morning started with one of those bizarre and psychedelic auras that precede a migraine. It’s been many years since my last migraine. (Funny how that sentence reminds me of growing up Catholic and the start of confession: “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been one week since my last confession…” It’s been much longer than that. Just inserting a time frame because that’s what you do. Or used to do. It’s been so long that it might have changed by now.) I spent the day hiding in the quiet and in the dark.
Today’s view of the blues of the pond and sky
Today is much, much better, and I can once again go out into the light. My head is a little woozy, but M will tell you I am always a little woozy. He may be right.
I’m all out of blue photos for today, but since we’re on the subject of blue, you might want to participate in Scott’s assignment this month which is Blue Hour. The deadline is May 23. I missed a couple of good opportunities for a nice cloudy blue hour shot. Hopefully I’ll get another chance at it soon.
Yesterday’s sunset which has no blue in it at all.
That’s about it from the Bogs on this warm and sunny Tuesday. Thank you so much for your visits, your likes, and your comments. I’ll be returning your visit soon. 🙂
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Life in the Bogs 
Gorgeous selections as always… I see you went all out on the blue banner and fonts too. Love, love, love it! 😉
Kudos! 🙂
Thank you, Elizabeth. 🙂
Wonderful! I love the color blue too, but not as much as purple 🙂
Thanks, Gracie. 🙂
The shocking blue. The brilliance of it all. Wonderful series.
Thank you, Terry. 🙂
Gosh, Robin, those pansy photos are amazing!
Hugs,
Kathy
Thank you, Kathy. 🙂
your blue is so extra vivid, reminds me of a painting my S did a few weeks ago, it was midday, very blue sky, water, nestled into the wetlands behind the sand dunes …. you can see it on his new site if you are curious stuartwhitelaw.com, the one called bingi wetlands …so glad your head is recovering robin 🙂
That is a gorgeous painting, Christine! (Lots of gorgeous paintings! Your S is very talented.) The blues are wonderful.
Love your pansy pictures. And, all the blue at your other blog is amazing. I did not know you had two blogs, too. I will have to go back and catch up with you there.
Thank you, Bearyweather. 🙂
I don’t post often at my other blog anymore. It used to be my primary blog, but I couldn’t keep up with two and decided this one was more important to me in some respects. Even so, I couldn’t shut Bountiful Healing down and now I use it for the occasional Small Stone.
So many great blue photos, Robin! That blue sky with the white clouds is awesome.
Thank you, Susan. 🙂
Those pansies are very nicely detailed. (I always go for the blue ones too!)
Thank you, Teresita. 🙂
Who needs Photoshop, when you have such a clever camera? Love all of this blue, Robin.
I’ve been threatening to buy a new camera for a while now, and think I may have decided on the one I will be getting. It will be fun, playing around with the diferent settings. 🙂
Thank you, Joanne. 🙂
My camera can’t do all that I would like it to do, but I think I manage to come close. It took a lot of playing around to figure out what it would do, and to learn how to make it do things you wouldn’t think a point & shoot can do.
It’s neat how the tungsten setting on your camera makes the pansies seem to glow. I also enjoyed the dry brush filtered shot– very artistic!
Migraines are so terrible. I usually get them twice a year or so– usually when I’ve been out in the sun for too long, didn’t drink enough water, or decided to try being a coffee drinker that day (by drinking A LOT of coffee). I can’t even sit up when I get them– it’s straight to bed for me. I hope you’re feeling better and that you won’t get a migraine visit again for a long, long time (an even longer time span than the date of your last confession). 😉
lol! Thanks, Dana. 🙂
Too much sun and not enough water does that to me too. Coffee is something I just generally avoid since it makes me crazy chatty and can give me the shakes.
Wonderful selection of blues, those pansies are startling. Really lovely entry! xxx Ailsa
Thank you, Alisa. And thanks for stopping by and commenting. I appreciate it. 🙂
the second photo has beautiful bokeh, was that straight out of the camera or slightly tweaked?
i love it & the colours
all of your photos are lovely
Thank you, Chloe. 🙂
The second one is slightly tweaked. I added vignetting to soften the edges.
Hi Robin. Lovely blues… I love the word ‘tungsten’. Sorry about your migraine. Chocolate in excess causes mine. Jane
Thank you, Jane. 🙂
My daughter had a full-on migraine yesterday, too…Odd, she hasn’t had one in more than a year…
Love the blues…especially the pansies. The rabbits keep eating the flowers off mine…
Thank you, Marie. 🙂
Sorry about your daughter’s migraine. I hope she’s feeling better now. As for rabbits eating the pansies, something ate our rabbits so our pansies are safe (for now). I miss the rabbits. I like watching them run around out back, playfully chasing each other.
When I was a young mother, pansy planting was always the beginning of the warmer weather. My kids and I always loved planting our multi-colored pansy bed. Your blues are quite the spectacular pansy — I love blues, too. (After orange.)
Thank you, Bo. 🙂
We plant our pansies in the fall, to winter over. It’s something we learned to do when we moved to NE Ohio. I always thought it kind of odd until we did it. This past winter, with it being so mild, we had pansies almost throughout the season. After the last one seemed to die, the weather warmed up and the pansies came back.
I hope you are not blued out, Robin! Those flowers are blue gems to behold.
Thank you, Scott. 🙂 Not blued out at all, but still trying to find the right moment/spot for that blue hour shot.
I loved those blue pansies.. I’ll have to try that setting on my camera! What fun! I hope you avoid having many more migraines! I discovered that stress tips me off and gives me those!
Thanks, Smidge. 🙂
Beautiful. I like it when you share how you process the photos. I would like to get a little more artistic or creative with mine and the use of PhotoShop, but it takes me so long. . .and I really am not very good at it.
Thank you, Christine. 🙂
I was not very good at Photoshop either. It used to be a long, slow, laborious process that often ended in something I couldn’t use. Time, patience, and practice have helped a lot. You could also try one of the free online programs to start. At the very least I’ve found that helps to discover the type of processing you’d like to do. I started with Picasa, and still use it to sort through my photos and for some post-processing (and resizing). It is super user friendly.
Love the pictures!!
Hope you don`t have to experience more migraines for a veeery long time, or better never again!
Thank you, Ellen. 🙂
What an amazing set of blue inspired images. From the beautiful sky to the stunning flowers down to the dreamy landscape.
Thank you so much, Island Traveler. 🙂
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The blue pansies are beautiful, but the “yesterday’s” sunset is simply stunning. 🙂
Thank you, Sallyann. 🙂