A single pink azalea with the rest of the bush, blurry, behind it. Experimenting with depth of field while enjoying the beautiful weather and gorgeous scenery around my house.

The same azalea photo, but with the background in a soft gray with just the foreground flower in color.

This weathered barn sits behind my house, surrounded by oak, magnolia, and cherry trees. Azalea bushes bloom close by. The sign on the side is a rusty, metal Coca Cola ad. It's probably been there as long as the barn itself.

The magnolia trees are in fierce bloom right now. I gave this one a blue tone, but pulled out the edges on the branch in front.

Another photographer recently introduced me to IR, or infrared, photography. I applied the PSPX IR filter to this image, and this was the result. See Magnolia, IR2 for a comparison to a Photoshop plug-in IR filter.

This is more what I expected from the IR filter -- the white flowers to be dark and the dark trunks and branches to be light. I added a little softness, to give it a spooky, foggy feel.

With all the trees and flowers blooming around my house, how could I not take pictures of them? Magnolias have always been a favorite of mine. This photo has no postwork.

Close up of the spoke and wheel assembly of an old, rusty wheelbarrel. This thing has seen years of use -- and will see many more before it's retired.

My fiancé really liked the way the leaf cupped the violet in this image. To highlight them, I left them in color, but made the grass and twigs beneath them black and white.

My landlady and her son are always doing work around the property. It's several acres, and they have corn fields, fruit trees, even a sweet potato patch. When I look out my back window this is what I see. That wheelbarrow has always caught my imagination.