At Home with Tech

If you don’t mind getting caught in a rain shower, now’s the perfect time to snap some photos of early-spring flowers. Here’s what I saw.

Spring is always a magical time as nature’s colorful energies reemerge. But early spring in New England can be a cold and rainy period. This year in Connecticut is no different.

You can tell that the real spring surge is still at least a week away. But there are plenty signs that the big bloom is already underway. Early spring flowers have their date with destiny. As far as they’re concerned, it’s show time!  Lots of rain? No problem.

But that’s not an enticing set up for a photographer to take the camara out for a walk in the neighborhood. That said, you’d be surprised with what you might see. Just don’t forget to wear your raincoat.

That’s exactly what I did, and here’s what I spotted shining through the dreary weather…

Get Close… Really Close
I like to position my camera up close to the spring colors.
(It’s never about zooming in on a flower. You’ve got to really press your lens in.)

Look for Daffodils
They’re among the first flowers to show up and always great to practice on.
To be fair, the sun did peak out to illuminate this moment.

Find the Raindrops
If the opportunity presents itself, I always enjoy composing my shots to include a raindrop or two.

Use your Narrow Depth of Field
I used my old Panasonic Lumix LX-10 in manual focus mode to help me narrow the focus and play with some blur. That’s fun, but also challenging, because flowers don’t exist on a flat plain. So, you need to choose your focus point carefully.

Join the Celebration
There’s nothing wrong with waiting a bit longer until spring is in full force to snap your photos. But I feel these moments of emergence are particularly special and shouldn’t be missed.

It’s been a long winter. Now’s the time to soak in some early color.