As I promised, recently I started practicing photography more seriously, not just snapping a photo on the go and betting on getting lucky. I have a plan for the upcoming future and I hope I can accomplish as much of my plan as possible. The truth is, there are a lot of tutorial videos available for free, for smartphone photography, but most of us is ok with the default and automatic settings. That's the lazy way and I'm not any better than others, when it comes to this. So It's time to change that.
As I mentioned previously, I'm a huge fan of buds. I love buds more than flowers when it comes to taking photos. My African violet is starting flower now and I thought it's a good occasion to take a bunch of photos, experimenting with different settings, to see which one is better.
Believe it or not, my biggest fear was how to handle the plant. If you're not familiar with the African violet, let me tell you that the flexibility of the leaves is very little or non existent. You can't just lift the leave as it breaks in a second. These leaves are thick, hairy, as you can see on the photos, but extremely fragile. I don't think I've seen any plant similar to these, that are so fragile.
This is why it is easy to collect broken leaves in the flower shop or nursery, when you see African violets. People have no idea how to handle them. They also have no idea about how to propagate them, so the leaves are most likely thrown away, which is a real shame.
Most likely I'm the only fool collecting, protecting and giving these leaves a new life.
So next time I need to pick a different background as this one is not good. I need a neutral color.
As about my flower collection, I'd like to have more colors as at the moment I only have this blue and pink. The pink is not doing so well, so there's a chance it won't survive. I'd like to get some deep red, white and let's see what other colors are out there.
As about the photos, well, there is a lot to learn but I think I had enough of African violet photography. I'd rather stick to architecture and black and white as it seems more interesting for me at the moment. It's time to explore what life grants us and what technology can offer at the moment.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
