Nature's weird creations: Flower edition

Hello, I've been asked to post more pictures recently, so here are some flowers! I'd like to title these: nature's weird creations. Scroll down, and you'll see why. It's so interesting how much flowers vary, and what physical traits nature decides to bestow them with.

This looks like a little compact bouquet of flowers. All ready to be shown off and framed in green! I like how the shadows give the different petals depth.

The texture of these petals, and the creamy white allude to some sort of fancy event for some reason. Don't you want to touch them? I really like the pop of the crisp green bulbs in the center of the flowers--it is a nice contrast and keeps the flowers from being boring. That, and have you seen many four-petal flowers? I think most are 5 or 6.... 

Surprise! These two pictures are the SAME type flower! The only difference is that the one on top is just blooming. Isn't that so strange? I thought it looked like a bow of sorts. I really like the rippled look before it blooms into a regular-ish looking flower.

Also, I didn't notice that the top picture was taken with the flash on (I know, I know, how can you not notice that??) The flash ended up making the edges of the petals a white glow, and a washed out look. Now I remember why I don't use direct flash usually!

Aren't these flowers a sight? It was quite interesting how this one bunch of flowers were so variegated, from white to purple. They remind me of flowers at a wedding.

Also, the white stamens (I think) make the flower take on the essence of a cactus! 

A few pictures revisited...

So I have finally had some down time in my school work, and I turned to flipping through a few folders of my pictures. And then I got the urge to do some black and white photos, but didn't want to go out into the rainy weather (yes, I know it was sunny just last weekend....), so I did what I don't normally do, and altered a few of my pictures on picmonkey (yay free websites!). And here are the results! I'd like to know what you think of them...better? worse?

I paired each one with its original:

Original:

Altered:

The main change here was simple turning the picture black and white. I think it worked well because of the fine detail, but the background got a bit messy. I cropped it to try to remedy that, but am still not entirely happy with the outcome. I'm glad that only the center is in focus though, which helps take the eye away from the back.

Original:

Altered (1):

I majorly boosted the color on this one. I really like how it brought out the green, but still kept the mystic fog. 

Altered (2):

I simply turned the one above black and white, and the boosted color helped make sharper contrasts and detail. I can't tell if I like this one better than the latter, but I definitely like these best out of my alterations in this round.

Original:

Altered:

I boosted the color here as well, which made the purples much deeper and more of a royal purple versus a lilac purple. Then I zoomed in and cropped. I've never zoomed in on a picture before and then cropped it! It give it a more computer-monitor-y feel to it, because I think the colors are too fake and the zoom makes everything a bit blurry. But I think too much detail might have actually made it too busy?

So what do you all think? Which is your favorite? Least favorite?

I actually find these alterations quite calming and fun! haha

Artful message

Two words, with two different meanings, but put them next to each other, and they have so much power.

The way these words were written on the stairs were imaginative, colored in separate rectangles on the edges of each step. I was quite impressed!

Photo of the day: The campus at night

I live on a beautiful campus. 

Look at these lights on a rainy night;

the soft glow is warmth and beauty.

Spring flowers

It's spring! Which means that everything is blooming at once. So here are a gazillion pictures of pretty flowers that were taken in my city's week of spring sunshine. I'm always amazed by how many different flowers there are on campus! They are so bright and colorful.

Have you ever heard of the Bulgarian holiday Baba Marta, where red and white bracelets called Martenitsa are given out as a greeting to welcome the end of winter and beginning of spring? Well my TA for math is from there, and he brought this tradition along to the people who visited him in office hours. Technically the holiday is in March, so we were a bit late, but I still liked the sharing of his culture. Anyways, you are supposed to tie the bracelet around the first blooming plant you see. 

Well, on campus, everything bloomed at once! But I decided to choose a small bright bushy-eyed cherry tree on the edge of Red Square. I was a little afraid I would hurt the tree, so I tied is loosely around the tree, and as the tree grows, I'm planning to go back and cut it off so it doesn't restrict the branch. But it was kind of deliriously exciting to take my bracelet off and tie it on a tree. I'm not sure why, and I'm not going to analyze it, but anyways, here's photographic evidence! haha.

I really enjoy the one part in focus and the seeming zoomed in focal point to that spot. I particularly enjoy the pop of color. These are the brightest flowers I have seen. 

I also like the surprise of the yellow dots smattering the blue.

A lively strip of magenta to break up the monotony...

I wish I could have gotten that little piece of yellow out of the corner, but the wind was waving these flowers around like crazy. I'm actually quite happy with the crisp detail I managed to get; definitely using a fast shutter speed. I also liked the coloring. Yellow is expected, but this young flower is striped with green, which is fascinating to me.

I liked the smattering of colors given by the flower petals blown away in the wind. The bright colors don't overpower each other, which is nice.

The delicacy of dandelions is absurd. But their puffy seeds are so beautiful in the air.

I think this is wisteria. It is beautiful, isn't it? I like the way it catches the sunlight. The white seems to glow, withholding the light.

Enjoy the flowers around you, and the many more to come in summer.

The lovely weather outside

It is sunny outside! But as much as I love the sun, I don't love the heat. At all. The grass is always greener on the other side, huh. I'm also getting over a cold, so not many pictures, but I passed these lovely things along my way to class. And I only had my phone with me at the time, so these were all taken with my phone's camera. Enjoy the sun!

Someone planted all these pretty windmills (I actually don't know what they are properly called...) all along the grassy areas of campus. Aren't they so pretty? In the sunlight, they silver would reflect the sunlight, and the grass became a sea of stars.

The buttercups are blooming! I have a lot of good memories from elementary school of picking bouquets of buttercups. I liked how if you held them under your chin, the sunlight would reflect the shimmery yellow onto you.

These puffy flowers made me entirely too happy for no reason. But they look all plush and fuzzy! I hope you enjoy them as much as they made me happy inside, haha.