In the winter when there are too many bare branches with no snow, I give into the excuses of too windy and/or too cold to go out photographing. I find a sunny window in our house and set up flowers in various patterns and color combinations. These photos were all taken in the upstairs bedroom of my house with the late afternoon sun coming in the only window in the room. I used my new vintage lens, a Helios 58mm f2. To get in closer to the flowers and avoid the window frame and curtains, I used some close-up lenses that I screwed into the front of the lens for greater magnification.
By using the closeup lens, the characteristic swirling bokeh does not show up like it would normally do shooting with the aperture wide open on the Helios. Instead the background flowers show up very blurred or as a smear of color. I like this effect. It eliminates distractions and gives a painterly effect to the background. I experimented with different color flowers in the background to see which complimented the hero flower the most. Do you prefer the analogous colors in the first and third photos or the complimentary purple and yellow on the center photo?
Beautiful work, Bonnie. I would never have guessed you were working inside in the winter. I am a big fan of complimentary colors together. In Provence, the lavender and the sunflowers are stunning together. Last evening, the orange sun over the dark blue water were equally stunning.
Both sound like beautiful color combinations, Cathy. Thank you.