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A heavy sort of beauty, yet delicate to the eye. The peony welcomes the late spring sunshine, and bears the burden of its rains. Nourished, yet strained, she bows to the beginning of summer. – Ed Lehming The peonies keep coming, and despite the rains, they are holding up quite well. As I’ve said before, how they hold up their heavy flowers is a real marvel. As I clip blossoms to photograph… Read More
“Now a soft kiss – Aye, by that kiss, I vow an endless bliss.” ― John Keats What more can I say, I am enveloped in pink. It is the colour theme of the season, the transition from whites to pinks and purples. Our peonies, are redolent in pinks and magentas. The gardens, filled with pink ruffles, brilliant white ecstasy, and magenta glory. Nikon D800 Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro… Read More
“Everything passes. Joy. Pain. The moment of triumph; the sigh of despair. Nothing lasts forever – not even this.” ― Paul Stewart The ‘fancy’ pink peonies are blooming at last. The flowers this year are massive and I frankly have no idea how the weight of the blossoms is supported by some of the stalks. Were it not for surrounding vegetation and a fence, they would surely collapse under their own weight…. Read More
“The long roots of the peony strike deep into the past.” – Alice Coats Today I’m sharing a peony that I have many of and I don’t believe this is the first blossom either. Several blossoms opened a few days ago, so it’s hard to know. The plant itself came from abandoned (expropriated) farm near my home. The family who used to live there (Spangs) were close friends with my wife’s family… Read More
“Spiders are anti-social, keep pests under control, and mostly mind their own business, but they somehow summon fear in humans who are far more dangerous, deceitful and have hurt more people. Of the two I’m more suspicious about the latter.” ― Donna Lynn Hope Finding a ‘visitor’ should not have come as a surprise. As I was making photos of one of my peonies, a spider, variety unknown to me (I’m not… Read More
“She was pure, it was true, as he had never dreamed of purity; but cherries stained her lips.” ― Jack London In this year’s theme of ‘firsts’, here’s yet another. The first white peony made its appearance in my gardens this morning. These white peonies hold a special place in our family, having been passed do from my wife’s grandmother. It’s an interesting blossom, being a beautiful pure white, with a tiny… Read More
“If today is not your day, then be happy for this day shall never return. And if today is your day, then be happy now for this day shall never return.” ― Kamand Kojouri I wanted to revisit this first peony blossom today. The image is made from a slightly different angle. When I shoot in the studio, I almost always set the subject up intuitively and stick with that shot. A… Read More
“With the utmost love and attention the man who walks must study and observe every smallest living thing, be it a child, a dog, a fly, a butterfly, a sparrow, a worm, a flower, a man, a house, a tree, a hedge, a snail, a mouse, a cloud, a hill, a leaf, or no more than a poor discarded scrap of paper on which, perhaps, a dear good child at school has… Read More
“When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered…the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls…bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory” ― Marcel Proust Peony, for me the queen of fragrance and memory. As I stepped outside today, following a brief rain shower, the perfume of this… Read More
“Firsts are best because they are beginnings.” ― Jenny Han The firsts keep coming. This time the first Clematis blossom, from our front flower bed. The first bloom has usually occurred around prom/graduation time, and has been prominent in many photos of our kids as they prepared for these events. Graduations and proms are becoming not so distant memories and now the first flower is simply there for us to enjoy and… Read More
“Was it the case that colours dimmed as the eye grew elderly? Or was it rather that in youth your excitement about the world transferred itself onto everything you saw and made it brighter?” ― Julian Barnes This blossom seems so appropriate as the late spring colour transition continues, with pinks becoming more purple and the introduction of oranges and reds. I had photographed this blossom a few days ago and set… Read More
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love—then make that day count!” ― Steve Maraboli As I sat, yesterday morning, sipping a coffee, on my back deck. I looked over my now lush garden. The rains have stopped, the temperatures are climbing and I can savour these moments, if only on weekends. One of my columbine… Read More
“I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.” ― Edna St. Vincent Millay Before they fade with the heat, I thought I’d make a quick image of this anemone blossom. Which, like all the studio close-ups, reveals wonderful details and complex structures. This blossom, a bit ‘mature’ has dropped a lot of pollen on the petals already. I’m not sure what… Read More
“This might be the most important question for every creator and maker in the world: how do you make something new if most people just like what they know? Is it possible to surprise with familiarity?” ― Derek Thompson With a gradual warming and ample moisture, fungi are now beginning to emerge from cracks and crevices in rotting logs. I’m not skilled at early fungus identification, but I imagine these ‘fingers’ will… Read More
“Humans do artificial things But nature always hits back naturally !!!” ― Akshay Shinde I decided to give this one the studio treatment, to show all the complex textures apart from the ‘clump’ growing in my front garden. The Wood Anemone is a native plant and through a natural process, ended up growing my gardens. I enjoyed watching it flower a few years ago, till it started taking over the entire flower… Read More
“Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.” ― Samuel Johnson I’m revisiting this interesting flower one more time. When I first discovered it, I was not sure what it was, so I took several photos, hoping to identify it when I got home from my hike. Sometimes, a surprise awaits, as in this image, which shows the Avens flower very nicely but also includes a guest, in the… Read More
“All life is bound to a simple truth… that time goes on, that in each person’s life begins a tale, a tale that will either end in memory or in legend.” ― M.J. Chrisman Here I am revisiting the dried flowers that I have kept from earlier in the spring. The textures and colours still fascinate me. Is this a weird thing, this enjoyment of the ‘expired’ flowers? I have enough now… Read More
“Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.” ― Gérard de Nerval I had to go back to this location again and get just one more image of the bunchberries, before they fade into summer and memories. There are certain plants that have a subconscious draw on me. Bunchberry is one of those. perhaps it’s my love of dogwoods, a family of plants to which these also belong. Miniature dogwoods! It’s the… Read More
“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” ― Roger Miller Another rainy day image, though the rain has finally moved on. It was so cool and wet this day that the Goat’s Beard blossoms remained partially closed. This one had a special appeal to me because of the raindrops that cling to it, a reminder that it was, in fact, raining that day, lest I forget. Though I find… Read More
This week’s submission to Norm 2.0‘s Thursday Doors. Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favourite door photos from around the world. “Abandoned” This image is a far departure from my usual images of stately, ornate doors, yet they are still doors and I found them quite intriguing. As I was out hiking earlier this year, I came across an abandoned maple sap… Read More
“Love softens the hardest edges of life’s tumult.” ― Bryant McGill Along the dirt road that leads to one of my favourite hiking trails, are huge clumps of lilacs. There are many varieties, ranging from deep purples to the purest of whites. Their fragrance fills the air, even in the rain. They certainly aren’t native to the location, likely planted as ornamental shrubs by the property owners many years ago. And, their… Read More
“I simply can’t look into the heavens on a crisp starry night and somehow bring myself to believe that the gaping expanse that engulfs the whole of me is the product of chance happenstance. And neither can I believe that the gaping expanse that rests within me is anything less.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough The quote above has resonated with me for some time, and applies just as well as we view… Read More
“You may be the only person left who believes in you, but it’s enough. It takes just one star to pierce a universe of darkness. Never give up.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich This little flower is aptly named. As I returned from my photo hike last weekend, I thought I had come across some real rare, hard to find flower. When I found it, and saw the name, I smiled. I smiled… Read More
“Life has pounded me down and thrashed me around, Time and time again, But I always get right back up, Because I still love life – Just as the earth still loves The rain.” ― Suzy Kassem The continuing theme of the past few weeks, is ‘Saturated”, as evidenced by this dandelion seed head. Entire fields of dandelions looked like this, after days of non-stop rain and mist. From my Sunday hiking… Read More
“A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones.” ― Abraham Lincoln This one is a new plant for me. While hiking on Sunday, I caught a brief flash of burgundy a short distance… Read More
“When one tunes in into nature’s frequency, life becomes change, change becomes hope!” ― Aniekee Tochukwu Ezekiel The honest truth, over the past few weeks, it’s been difficult to photograph anything that is not either dew covered, or rain-soaked. As my previous few posts have indicated, it has been WET here. To the point where I finally had a chance this past Sunday to take a brief hike in the local forests. Even… Read More
Pink and tiny, you sparkle from the forest floor. Sweet and delicate, you lead to summer’s warmth, from late spring rains and mist. – Ed Lehming This delicate pink flower, Herb Robert, is in fact, a native Geranium. While a far cry from the fancy hybridized varieties we see in gardens, this diminutive wildflower is still quite lovely. I made this image during my recent forest hike, just after the rain had stopped, so everything… Read More
“It is easier to tell a person what life is not, rather than to tell them what it is. A child understands weeds that grow from lack of attention, in a garden. However, it is hard to explain the wildflowers that one gardener calls weeds, and another considers beautiful ground cover.” ― Shannon L. Alder As I mentioned yesterday, it’s been too long since I had the opportunity to go for a… Read More
“I wanted to unfurl my toes for a little while. I wanted silence, isolation and an invitation to exhale life’s complications. I heard nature’s melody and I harmonised with every single note. I needed the trees, their colours, and the sounds of wildlife breathing. I inhaled the essence of the forest and smiled as life coursed through my veins” ― Amelia Dashwood After several extremely busy work weeks and weekends filled with… Read More
“Mindfulness is not chasing the moment but sipping the nectar of the moment.” ― Amit Ray I noticed an interesting trend in my last few images, colours seem to have progressed from whites to pinks. It’s pretty obvious when I review my media library. The colour shift through the seasons has captured my attention over the past few years. I’d say I’m becoming a lot more observant as I spend time really paying… Read More
Ed Lehming Photography 
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