Tag: color

a bunch of balloons for the birthday blog

My blog is 13 years old today. With this, it officially becomes a teenager. It’s hard to know what to get your blog. Really, I’d love to spend more time with it. Maybe reminisce about old posts and the halcyon days of the blogging community. Maybe spend some quality time composing posts with a bit of substance, or maybe a creative writing project. But as is apparently my mantra, I don’t have time for that today. So I’m getting my blog what I usually get it: a few photos I’d been saving. These particular ones are wrapped up in my ongoing thematic train of thought.

Here are several photos I took of balloons during my June 2018 trip to Poland.

poznan-balloons2This brightly-colored bunch of balloons drew my eye in the Old Town square in Poznań. I enjoyed the contrast of the regal renaissance buildings and the garish contemporary pop culture balloons.

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Colorful stripes abound.

unicorn-balloon

This stylish woman (whether a balloon enthusiast or a balloon vendor) was not to be overshadowed by her bunch in her vibrant hot pink dress.balloon-seller

And finally, this photo was not from my trip to Poland, nor of balloons. But I’d hate for my blog to think I hadn’t remembered the cake.

cake13.jpg

Happy birthday, dear blog.

orange oranges

It’s true that I have posted all but one of these photos before, just not all together. Given my recent run on orange photos, I felt compelled to share some of my favorite orange photos.


One of my favorites from my year of Project 365. This was when I was playing around with long exposures and motion blurs.


Having recently shared photos of an orange flower, it brought to mind this photo I took of the very flower-like shape on the stem end of a clementine.


Here’s that same clementine, but without the macro lens.


Also from Project 365, when I played with perspective. I would love to try this one again some time.


My snack scraps, beautifully catching the afternoon light earlier this year.


A more recent macro photo.

leaves of pink

I mentioned yesterday that a Japanese maple tree in my neighborhood, now looking quite orange, once produced fall leaves of a surprising pink color. Here are a few photos I took in the late fall of 2012.

Two fallen pink and purple leaves among the duller hues of the oak leaves.

I was also quite taken by the complex pattern and varying shades of pink, on the leaves, looking like a mosaic, or fish scales.

These photos were from November, so there is clearly quite a bit more time for this year’s leaves to change color. I’m rather curious to see what they’ll do.

indigo oak leaves

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a set of photos showing a range of colors that can be seen in the fall foliage of my neighborhood. My wise and astute friend Magpie chastised me for leaving out part of the spectrum:

Red, orange, yellow, green, BLUE, INDIGO, violet. That is, you’re missing two. :)

It was a tough order, but I think I found some indigo leaves in a photo taken a year ago today. While the leaves in front are of a more expected rusty orange hue, the leaves showing up behind them appear to be a of a deep indigo. (That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Maybe.)

full-color fall color

With the gray days of winter looming in the not too distant future, my eyes are savoring the flashy colors of fall. The New England trees are putting on as lovely a show as ever, but the vines and shrubs and even some of the weeds are competing for attention.
red leaves

orange leaves

yellowish leaf

green and red spotted leaves

purple leaves

The first 4 photos are ones I’ve taken with my phone in the last few weeks. The fifth photo is actually one I took with my camera a couple of years ago. I have some more recent photos of this same type of leaves and berries, but the leaves weren’t nearly as purple.

ridiculously colorful Fall leaves

New England is known for its spectacular Fall foliage, primarily for the show put on by the sugar maples that are native to the region. However, there are plenty of other plants, trees and shrubs that put on autumnal shows of their own. And I have no idea what most of them are.

These are some photos I took around and about over the last 2 weeks.


This little guy is a shrub on the campus of BU. The leaves reminded me of confetti.


These leaves were on a smallish tree on the MIT campus. I loved the way the colors changed variably across the surface of each leaf, making striking multi-colored outlines.


This plant caught Phoebe’s attention at an apple orchard we went to a couple weekends ago. Likely a weed, these plants grew over 6 feet tall, and had very soft, fuzzy stems. (Phoebe wanted to just stay and pet the plant.) We were all amazed by the varied colors, covering quite a large range of the spectrum, and often over the surface of a single leaf.


This is just another shot of that same plant.

Anyone have any idea what any of these are?