Spring is (almost) here. New Growth and New Creativity.
This time last year, I posted a story on this blog called “Virtual Spring”. We were in the midst of lockdown and I couldn’t get out to get any photos of the changing seasons. While autumn has always been my favourite season to photography, spring is a close second. I love as the bleakness of winter gives way to new life, and it clears out the cupboards of one’s mind, as it were.
It began as the daffodils broke out, heralding the beginning of the end of winter. The vibrant yellow and green often come with milder and sunnier days, and they brighten up the bleak surroundings of the gloomy winter months. Then they’re followed by a slow explosion of spring flowers and buds on the trees.
I have an ever-growing obsession with cherry blossoms. We’ve been driving around trying to gauge when they will bloom, and so far, some have and some haven’t. I guess Dublin has numerous species that bloom at different periods. We’re still not at the peak of the season, but I expect that will be any day now.
Aside from just out and about, we also went to some gardens and public parks, searching for new growth. From Airfield in Dublin to Kilruddery in bray, co. Wicklow, it’s great to see these places coming back to life, as well as a lovely place to take in the wonders of nature’s rebirth.
But more than anything else, it’s good to be out shooting again. The past two years have been difficult, with the pandemic, the lockdowns and the mental health effects that have gone with it. It’s so good to get back out to take photos, and I’ll be honest, I’ve struggled. The signs of colour and life returning are a good motivation and one step at a time, I’m getting back to a degree of normality with my photography.
To be honest, I’m not 100% happy with theses, and I’ve been having difficulty with my photography recently. I’ve been finding it hard to get what I see in my head out onto the screen. I guess I’m rusty.
Likewise, I doubt things will ever be the same in a post pandemic world, and we’re not even there yet anyway. For now, the colours and the new life of spring are helping me creatively and psychologically recover my creative spirit. And that's a step in the right direction.
Technically speaking
These were all taken with the Fuji X-E4 as I was getting to know the new camera. All were processed in Lightroom (using the “Enhance” pre-process to better decode the raw files) and using various techniques to colour grade and edit the images. I actually didn’t do that much to most of these, and some are actually pretty much straight out of the camera.
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