A Little Photo Tip

These are photos of the same subjects, taken the same day, in my garden. Notice the difference in size of the sunflower. In the first one, I was standing close to the flowers. In the second I was way across the swimming pool, using the telephoto lens. This brought the lilies and the sunflower together, and gave a more accurate account of the sunflower's size.

And a little sunflower painting:

posted by Carmen

South Carolina Inspiration

We aren't posting much. And we're having trouble all getting together at the same time due to our busy schedules, but the Pieces of 8 are actively creating! Four of us had a marvelous time in South Carolina in April. I took thousands of pictures while we were there and am totally inspired by them. I put together a sampler of a few of the images I've been modifying in Photoshop. Most are of the beautiful flowers we saw in Brookgreen Gardens. Poppies are a favorite of mine. The Gardens also had a butterfly garden and an aviary/zoo.

I also managed to work on a few acrylic paintings inspired by the trip. I'm only calling the one shown here "finished." This was a beautiful butterfly called a Malachite (after the green stone) emerging from its cocoon.

I'm including my source photo below as it shows two malachites emerging at the same time. They are apparently only this beautifully colored when they first emerge. You have to pay $3 above and beyond the admission price to go into the Butterfly Garden, but it was so worth it!

Here's a link to Brookgreen Gardens - a wonderful place to spend the day if you should get to the East coast of South Carolina, it's just a little south of Myrtle Beach and where we stayed in Surfside Beach.