As part of my 90 Photo Project – I’ve found myself returning to one set of Oakleaf Hydrangea bushes several times. I’ve really enjoyed seeing how the colors and textures have changed on the plants over the past several weeks. Here’s what I’ve photographed there.

© 2011 Patty Hankins

Day 8 – Oak Leaf Hydrangea

Lots of colors in this patch of Oak Leaf Hydrangea. I like the contrast of all the colors in the leaves and the pale brown of the dried flowers. There were some neat textures in the flowers – I may head back with my macro lens in the next few days and see what I can do with them in.

© 2011 Patty Hankins

Day 8 – Oak Leaf Hydrangea

Day 12 – More Oakleaf Hydrangea Leaves

What a difference a few cold days make! Just a few days ago (day 8) the leaves on the oakleaf hydrangeas were shades of green, yellow & orange. This morning I found lots of incredible shades of red and purple!!!

© 2011 Patty Hankins

Day 8 – Oak Leaf Hydrangea

Day 23 – Oak Leaf Hydrangea

I was really surprised to see so much color left in the Oak Leaf Hydrangea leaves. Just about all the other trees and shrubs in the area have either dropped their leaves – or are full of brown leaves. Lots of great reds and purples in the leaves – not sure how much longer this will last.

While I was out photographing this morning I saw lots of robins and other birds eating the berries off some of the trees. Not sure if I’ll try to photograph them or not in the next few days – I do a much better job photographing non-moving subjects than moving ones 🙂

© 2012 Patty Hankins

Day 56 – Oakleaf Hydrangea Abstract

So day 56 was new Year’s Day and I ended up with a very different type of photo. Perhaps I can attribute it to the mimosas Jimmy & Rose were serving on New Year’s eve. . .

I started photographing the dried flowers on the Oakleaf Hydrangea bushes across the stree – inspired by a great photo of a red-winged blackbird on hydrangeas that Dan Williams posted. I had the dried flowers in sharp focus – and the background kind of blurry – and then I realized I liked the blurry background more interesting than the dried flowers.

So I recomposed the photo – on just the out of focus background. I kept the image out of focus – and started seeing what I could find. This was my favorite shot. There’s enough in focus to tell that it’s hydrangea bushes (if you know what they look like) with enough out of focus to not make it obvious what it’s a photo of.

Then I did more post-processing in Lightroom than I usually do. I played with all the saturation sliders – bringing out the blue, aqua, purple and magenta tones that were pretty sublet in the original image.

Overall I like it – and I may play with the idea of deliberately out of focus photos if I find something that I think will work.

I’d love to hear what you think about this photo.

© 2012 Patty Hankins

Day 70 – Oak Leaf Hydrangea Blossoms

I decided to head back to the Oak Leaf Hydrangea bushes I’ve photographed several times previously. Most of the leaves are gone – and those that are left are primarily brown. Some of the flowers have dried on the stalks – and are quite beautiful.

If you’d like to see the full set of photos from my 90 Day Photo Project or would like to follow along as I post new photos – I’m posting the photos and comments to both Facebook and Google+.