The spring bluebonnets are beginning to come out in force. I haven’t toured the countryside yet, but around town I see them cropping up here and there. There is an empty commercial lot near a main boulevard that I pass from time to time and have seen the bluebonnets blooming. So, I went there on Monday afternoon as the sun peaked through the heavy cloud cover for a short time.
This is on an otherwise ugly lot, so I had to carefully control the background. I got down really low with a long lens to try to isolate a few flowers with a blurry blue and green background.
Occasionally the sun did peak through and give me a little bit of nice evening light. I actually found that I was getting too much background blur and stopped down to f/5 for the image below.
The challenge with a bluebonnet photo is isolating a flower to make an interesting photo or else you don’t know where to look. The flowers all grow quite clumped together so this was a bit of a challenge.
My editing was mainly applying a landscape profile, which enhances the warm colors, and I reduced the clarity just a little to help the background blur.
It’s been cloudy and rainy, I have been working from home, and I needed to get out and see something different for a while. So even though there is a busy street a few feet away and an ugly lot in the background, these photos look like I was somewhere pleasant.
Jason Frels 
I think bluebonnets are some of the happiest flowers in the world, and yours are lovely. It took me some years to figure out that they even have a fragrance, if a light one. I just saw a patch on the outskirts of my town this weekend, in a front yard. I’d thought we weren’t going to have any, but now I suspect I was being over-eager. I’m glad to see yours, too!
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I always look forward to the bluebonnets. We have had so much rain, I expect them to be quite prolific this year.
I was planning a little trip out to Big Bend to see the wildflowers but I don’t know if I will have to cancel that.
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So pretty! 🙂
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I guess one nice thing about working at home is that you can set your own hours. I think you’re right, the effect works well when a solitary bluebonnet is in focus, with the remainder in blurred background.
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I’d never seen a bluebonnet you close like that, what a beautiful picture Jason. They are so fascinating,I love bluebonnets, even though we don’t get many over in El Paso.
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Thanks. I hope things are going well for you there.
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Well, we’re now working from home, I don’t know how long that will last. How are you all doing?
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Working from home. Kind of getting stir crazy, doesn’t bode well for the next month or so. It is also rainy which traps me in a bit. I’m sure I’ll be OK. Crazy times
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I understand, well about the rain, lol. Tomorrow will be the first day I’ll be working from home, I just up my all in one computer. Which is going to suck because I normally work with three monitors. It’s been raining here the last three days. But oh well, I hope you don’t go too stir crazy.
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