Pages

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Memories


'Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.'  
 -  Dr. Seuss


I stepped out my back door to look for flowers to photograph.  I found some chives, a spirea bush (maybe?) and peonies.  



As I was getting things together for a still life with the peonies, I got a whiff of their wonderful fragrance.  Their subtle perfume transported me... to my grandma's house.  I don't remember the peonies at my grandma's house, but the smell brought me into her powder blue living room so long ago.  

The peonies smelled good all weekend and I couldn't help but think of my grandma, with a smile on my face.  



My images were all processed in Lightroom using Kim Klassen's new presets, breath (lightening the shadows) on the peonies and breeze on the chives and spirea images.

Thank you so much for stopping by!
Have a great week!
Michelle


Kim Klassen dot com  Life Thru the Lens at Simply Living Photography  image-in-ing      

25 comments:

  1. Beautiful flowers and images. Love the quote too. Have a happy day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dr. Seuss is always right. :) What a sweet memory of your grandma's house, Michelle!
    Your peonies are so pretty, and the still life with the chives is just picture perfect! Love it! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the top/down image and the composition of it and agree sweet memory.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful images --all 3 of them! Very nicely set up, too. I love that, in the first and last image, you have some leaves lying about.

    ReplyDelete
  5. so my.... so pretty Michelle.each so lovely..... but i think the first is my fav... stunning... beauty.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I agree with Barbara, that top down image is stunning. Such a lovely memory of your grandmother.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I really like how you photographed the last two and such dainty looking flowers. As always, Ball jars are my favorite. Haven't used as a vase so that's a great idea. I use to have the peonies, your post makes me think I should plant them again. :) Happy Tuesday and thanks for visiting me.

    Peabea, visiting from LifethrutheLens.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love each one of your beautiful photos! I'm beginning to learn Lightroom from Kim's videos. I can't wait to try her presets!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh so lovely Michelle! The top image is my favorite, white peonies are my new favorite flower to see in the wonderful still life photography of others. They have such a dreamy quality. Maybe someday I will have some for myself.

    ReplyDelete
  10. They say that the sense of smell a key way to reignite memories and these peonies certainly brought back wonderful memories for you. Isn't it funny that you don't remember the peonies themselves?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Beautiful. I keep forgetting that chives have such a wonderful flower. When I saw the white peonies, I could smell their fragrance. My mind may have it all wrong, but to me peonies remind me of the smell of White Shoulders powder that my mother used. Thanks for thr memories.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Beautiful flowers and great that they invoked such happy memories #LTTL

    ReplyDelete
  13. Such lovely memories ... !
    These peonies are gorgeous, Michelle, so love this image !
    I bought some similar ones yesterday ... can't wait to take pictures :-)
    Have a nice week,
    Sylvia

    ReplyDelete
  14. Truly beautiful!
    Thanks so much for sharing at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2015/05/textures.html

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow, those peonies.....sigh ! I shall have to see if I can grow some. I love that photo with the blue ball jar.....blue and white is my favorite color combo . I love all your photos actually, the top down one is wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Peonies are my mother....for years! She died at age 94 last fall, but was able to enjoy her untamed garden of hundreds (yes hundreds) of peonies one last time after she started failing. She spent years working on hybridizing domestic peonies with wild ones. I don't have the space she had on our home farm, but I have more than 25 peonies and am adding 5 more in the fall. Beautiful image!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Stunning…..both angles for your arrangement, and the lovely peony. I adore peonies, and last year I bought one that is grown for California. I followed all the instructions about cutting back at the end of summer. It has all kinds of gorgeous leaves on it now but don't know if it's going to bloom again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed…..

    ReplyDelete
  18. Such lovely photographs! Really very beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Wow, these are gorgeous!! I would love for you share with us in the Texture Twist!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Beautiful shots! I cut some of our peonies and brought them in last week. They do smell heavenly.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I love the second image with the white background, great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  22. You've made me want to plant some peonies in my garden! I had forgotten how fragrant they are. You really captured their softness in these shots.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Smells will trigger memories for me so unexpectedly too! Such a treat/gift. (usually, ha!)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Oh Michelle, these are lovely... man I could linger all day and look at these shots. Well done, well done.

    ReplyDelete