It has been almost a year since I’ve owned my Sony DSLR camera and in that time span I have taken countless amounts of amazing photos that has created many memories for me. Also, taking photo for a year and living on the North East brings the opportunity to take photos in all four seasons of the year.
The one season I had yet to cover was blooming spring. Sure, I received my DSLR in late May of 2014 as that is technically spring, but all the flowers had already bloomed and the gorgeous colors of spring (pink, white, light green) were long gone.
Spring this year did not start off spring like as it actually snowed and within a few weeks the weather had been anything but warm. Sure enough, though, spring like temperatures in the 60s and 70s started to appear with flowers on the dead trees of winter were finally blooming.
This was something I was eagerly waiting for. This past Saturday was beyond gorgeous with temperatures in the mid-70s. I kept my eyes out on the blooming flowers and I knew that today would be the day to take my first spring photos and I had to do it as quick as possible before the spring colors merge into the dark greenness of summer. For this recent outing I shot in program and aperture, set ISO levels at 200 and set the white balance to daylight.
I left my apartment in Lawrenceville, New Jersey as I have already had some previous photography outings, helping me learn more about my new surroundings. With this outing, I was going back to all the spots I had taken photos in Lawrenceville as my main goal was to get as many blooming flowers and trees as possible along with wide shots of said trees to have the atmosphere of spring in my photos.
Extreme close up of a pink flower with white pedals in aperture
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography
As soon as I left my apartment, I walked around the building and right away spotted a tree with gorgeous pink and white flowers. After taking a practice vertical shot, I went up close to the tree to zoom in on the flower (photo above). I switched to aperture to get a much clearer and detail image of the flower. After waiting for a few seconds for the shot to focus, I snapped the photo to capture the image of rebirth.
Another aperture shot this time with some light green leaves with the blue sky contrasting beautifully
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography
After taking a few shots, I walked down Princeton Pike straight towards Lawrenceville High School to spot more potential spring like shots. At this point I was taking a lot of white and pink blooming flowers so I was looking for at least a tree with light green leaves and with my luck that’s exactly what I found. There was a tree hanging above me on the walkway that had these light green leaves (photo above).
Despite being six feet tall, I still had to tippy toe to get this shot. I switched to aperture once again for an extreme close up shot. I framed this particular branch in the middle because it was the closest to my camera as I had to stretch out my arms to get my camera close to it.
I zoomed in a bit, but sometimes when I zoom in aperture the entire shot will get out of focus so normally I have to get my lens as close to the object to get it to pop while getting the background to blur. That’s exactly what I had achieved here with this particular branch in center focus while the rest of the branches of this tree and the gorgeous blue sky were out of focus. It reminds me of the Donkey Kong Country 2 stage, Bramble Blast (Google image that for reference and comparison).
White and Pink flowers dominate the spring sky
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography
I made it to a certain point on Princeton Pike and turned back around to make my way to Colonial Park, another spot that I had taken photos previously. Along the way, I spotted this group of trees that I somehow missed that was nothing but pink and white flowers.
I had already taken a dozen photos of these types of trees so I decided to frame this shot much differently. Instead of including any part of the sky or showing the entire image of the trees, I zoomed in on program and framed the trees for a medium shot (photo above). I purposely did this to fill the photo of nothing but the pink and white flowers. This just yells spring right into your face (and allergies for others).
The two white trees being a nice welcoming committee to Colonial Park
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography
At Colonial Park, I was slightly disappointed by the lack of flowers and trees blooming. Granted, it’s still in the middle of April so there’s still time and I’ll probably check back on it later in a week. With that said, the entrance of Colonial Park did have a few white flower trees. Across on a sidewalk, I zoomed in for a medium shot and framed two of these trees to the left side, shooting in program (photo above).
On the right side of the frame I included the lake along with a woman walking in the distance. I had also push up on the camera to not include too much of the road on the bottom part of the photo. I took this shot because I wanted to get more full wide shots of blooming trees. Just like some of my fall photos, I was focusing a lot of close-ups on foliage. For a change, I went for more wide shots.
Wearing new shoes on this outing to break them in, I found the nearest bench by the lake to rest my feet for a few minutes and reflect not only on this photography outing, but also on my future projects and future photography outings. In the past year almost, photography has taken center stage of my life and has become my one true passion of late.
Thanks to photography I have met interesting people, pushed my creative ideas to new levels and have given me some opportunities to show case my talents to everyone. It has also given life to one of my past passions: writing. For the longest time writing was my life and soul, but in recent years it has taken a back seat.
Thanks to writing about my photos I feel alive every time I write/type about these photography stories. Few more minutes after thinking about the past year, I stood up and explored the rest of the lake to get some more, sweet spring photos before heading back home to end a wonderful Saturday afternoon.
Photography Journal of Angel Ortiz 