Summer Gardens

There are a few folks in my neighbourhood with definite green thumbs and a love of beautiful plants and flowers. One of the interesting things I love doing is really just observing how my neighbourhood changes through the seasons. With my camera of course!

With our late spring and even later start to summer (it may have come and gone, but hard to say for sure yet), it took awhile for even the basic spring flowers to show themselves. But now that it's June and the warm days arrived for a spell, the gardens are bursting with colour! Don't believe me? Check this out:

A Photographic Walkabout in Glasgow's West End

Summer seems to have graced us here in Scotland. Or at least we're hoping it intends to stick around a little while. It's been warm and dry most days and that means lots of time spent outside. Of course I have my camera with me!

In fact, I recently was able to upgrade my camera and boy am I glad I made the move! For most photographers, it's usually best to invest in lenses first and upgrade camera bodies in certain situations, like mine where my camera was entry level and several years old. My skills have progressed so much in this time and knowing where I want to be able to go allowed me to see that, yes, it was time to move on.

Enter my Nikon D7000 and brand new Tamron lens (a 28-75mm, 2.8 for those of you who are familiar with lens lingo). We're really getting to know each other and I think it was the best decision I could have made. The new equipment will allow me to actively pursue portrait photography, which I am so excited about and can't wait to share more about with you! It's weather sealed and the image are able to be enlarged a great deal without losing quality, which is very important to me.

I love living in the west end of Glasgow. It's a vibrant place full of people and parks and lots of interesting things to do. I'm often walking various parts of it as part of my daily routines and it's not uncommon that I'd have my camera with me.

Taking advantage of a beautiful evening on the weekend, my daughter and I went out to the shops to run some errands. But I paused frequently to document some lovely things that caught my eye:

All the trees are leafy and in bloom right now.

Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery

University of Glasgow as seen from Partick Bridge

Cheers! ~Lindsay

Sweet Peas

I love Spring! With the warmer and slightly drier weather comes a plethora of wonderful blooms just waiting to be photographed. Whether it's cherry blossoms or the ever prolific daffodils, I could spend hours outside.

However, sometimes it's also the flowers in the shops that catch my eye. On our main road through the West End, Byers Road, we have a few supermarkets that often carry flowers, as well as a few smaller shops of free standing vendors tempting you to take home a small bouquet.

Stepping into one shop yesterday, I smelt these exquisite blossoms before I even saw them and despite my limited shopping budget as of late, I couldn't help but place them in my basket.

Sweet peas remind me of my childhood and summer days spent wandering through my mom's amazing gardens, checking to see what new things had bloomed and what vegetables were making an appearance. Their sweet fragrance is one I can pick out of perfumes and just one inhalation makes me feel calm and happy.

Botanicals

I was combing through my photo library. Would you believe I have over 14, 000 images that I alone have taken? I was a little stunned but then again, I have been known to be prolific on a shoot.

I'm still playing with this blog layout, so if you see something odd, I'm probably in transition.

Here are a few botanical images for your viewing pleasure…