The Bright Side of Gloomy Garden Days: Better Color Photos

Container hosta nestled between nepeta and Japanese painted ferns,
growing beneath a tree-form Encore® Azalea. May 2013

Gloomy. Misty. Chilly. Where do I live? Not Seattle. North Carolina is having a cool spring. To find a bright side to this weather, I walked in the garden with the camera.

Colors show true in photos when the skies are overcast. On a typical, bright sunny morning in my south-facing garden, it is difficult to catch the true bloom colors as the rays of the sun cast a yellow-orange glow. I compared the two conditions in this photo post in 2009.

So, I'll stop complaining about wearing a raincoat outside and running the heat inside and share today's garden highlights in the lowlight.

Perennial blue flax, grown from seeds originally sown in 2009, continues to return or self-sow. Flax is a favorite and I have two varieties that, when transplanted early in spring, are welcome fillers in bare spots. Otherwise, I let it go where it sows as the slender foliage takes up little space. Deer and rabbit resistant. For more photos of this companion, click here for 2011 and here for 2010.

Two views of perennial blue flax. May 2013

Spires of salvia nemorosa Bordeaux™ 'Steel Blue'. May 2013

Salvia 'May Night'. May 2013

Salvias rule. My best nemorosa varieties include Bordeaux™ 'Steel Blue', 'Caradonna' (not yet in bloom) and 'May Night'.  Of the three, I can't choose a favorite, but 'Steel Blue' and 'Caradonna' are more unique than the popular 'May Night'.

The shades of red in my salvia greggii have a more accurate representation on cloudy days. I'm a fan of this drought-tolerant perennial that blooms heavily in spring and fall, and is loved by hummingbirds. Below are two of my favorites, but take a look at this post on April 26, 2012 and you can see the difference the cooler weather has made. Today's blooms are nowhere near the display of last year. Deer and rabbit resistant.

Salvia greggii 'Diane' is a lovely purple-red. May 2013.

I failed to capture the quick hummingbird feeding on
salvia greggii 'Navajo Bright Red'. May 2013.

Verbena 'Imagination' dangles over the cottage garden stream.
May 2013.

I'll wrap this up with dainty bloom clusters of verbena 'Imagination' that was sown from seeds and the native amsonia hubrichtii, two of my favorite frilly bloomers. Both self-sow freely and it is easier to keep the amsonia under control than it is the ground sprawling verbena. Deer and rabbit resistant.

I've been using my iPhone for many photos lately, but for today's post, all photos were taken with my Samsung HZ30W, purchased in 2011.

Until there are more blooms in my garden...enjoy yours.

Amsonia hubrichtii at the edge of the gravel garden. May 2013.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. Deer and rabbit resistance varies based upon the animal population and availability of food. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Easy, Safe Way to Carry a Phone in the Garden

Losing or breaking my iPhone while in the garden has been a concern when I carried it in my back pocket. Turns out, a travel accessory that I've had for ten years turned out to be the perfect way to carry my cell phone and seed packets in the garden.

My undercover travel pouch keeps my phone handy, dry and free from dirt. Mine is old enough to be made of nylon and has three compartments (intended for a passport, foreign currency, etc.). Newer styles are typically in silk and I have one of those, but decided the nylon is easer to wipe off.

Made to wear around the neck, I wear the pouch in a cross body style beneath my shirt so that when I'm weeding, it doesn't fall in my way. The neck strap is adjustable to the length that works best for an individual.

Undercover travel pouch can be used while gardening.

I discovered that the pouch is also the perfect size for stowing seed packets. Although I don't need to carry meds in the garden, it could also be used for something like an EpiPen® for those with insect sting allergies.

My pouch has a Velcro® closure, so it's easy to rip open while wearing gardening gloves.

Although my pouch is repurposed, new pouches from different manufacturers range in price from twenty to thirty dollars. A good investment considering the cost of replacing a cell phone.

Happy Gardening!

My iPhone in the front and seed packets in the larger pocket.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Capturing Paris

1. La Tour Eiffel shot from Museé du Quai Branly. Paris, October 2012

2. Boucicaud Square, Sévres Babylon neighborhood. Paris, October 2012

3. "Jelly Baby Family" by artist Mario Perucchetti.
Photo by my husband. Paris, October 2012.

4. Parc Monceau. Paris, October 2012

5. Panorama of Parc Monceau. Paris, October 2012
(click to enlarge photo)

6. View of Louvre. Paris, October 2012
Special effects using CameraBag.

I packed a "real" camera, but it never left our Paris apartment. On this trip in October 2012, I used my iPhone 4s with OS 6 for all photos. That said, we've traveled to Paris many times, so I've accumulated hundreds of photos with Canon and Sony cameras that took advantage of powerful zoom capabilities and high resolution. I've used some of those photos to decorate our family room. If you travel to Paris for a once-in-a-lifetime trip, take your best camera.

Unless specified in the caption, none of these photos were edited (other than cropped or straightened). You may click any photo for a slideshow.

Where to take your own photos of these scenes:

1. La Tour Eiffel shot from Museé du Quai Branly: If you're walking along the Seine between the Eiffel Tower and Musée d'Orsay, stop off and wander through the walled garden of the Quai Branly Museum in the evening. Besides going inside the museum, there's a little coffee shop/snack bar if you want to wait for the Eiffel Tower lights.
2. Boucicaud Square, Sévres Babylon neighborhood: Get off at the métro at the Sévres Babylon stop. This little park with the marble statue of Mme. Boucicaud and Baronne de Rothschild and stroll the neighborhood to go to the Sorbonne or Cluny Museum.
3. "Jelly Baby Family" by artist Mario Perucchetti: See this work of art (and a few others by the same artist), in front of Église Saint-Eustache (a church) near the Louvre.
4. Parc Monceau: A beautiful, tranquil park filled with French families strolling, playing and picnicking. This park is in an upscale neighborhood, within a few blocks of the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées.
5. Panorama of Parc Monceau: For more on how to do panoramic shots, see this story.
6. Louvre view: Walk through the arches from rue de Rivoli. I used CameraBag software for this special effect.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Jardin des Plantes Is Better in Autumn

Jardin des Plantes, Paris in panorama mode. October 2012
(click to enlarge photos)

Jardin des Plantes in October exceeded my expectations with grand displays of color, especially through salvia, tropicals and grasses. This is my favorite garden in Paris, but all of my prior visits were in the spring when the tulips and forget-me-nots formed low carpets of color.

All of my photos were taken with an iPhone 4s with OS/6. Today, we went to a social hosted by realtor Adrian Leeds (you may have seen her on HGTV's House Hunters International). "Eye Phoned Paris" was presented by professional photographer Michael Honegger who introduced us to a few applications to edit and enhance photos taken with an iPhone. After I shot these photos, I played around with CameraBag and Iris Photo Suite, so some have been edited with filters. For true inspiration in photography, be sure to take a look at Michael's website.

We spent very little time in the gardens today as it began to sprinkle rain. Perhaps we'll return to the Jardins on this trip as I never made it through this one front garden, let alone the wooded paths or alpine garden. This is a true botanical garden with many (free) sections and I highly recommend visiting to stroll or admire the plantings.

Passiflora at Jardin des Plantes. Enhanced.
I used CameraBag "fish eye" and
Iris Photo Suite for the watermark.

Glorious red salvia greggii steals this scene (above).
Tall grasses and tropical foliage add height (below).

Beautiful mixed borders
fill Jardin des Plantes.

Salvia leucantha looking great.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Panoramic Paris

Photo taken using iPhone with IOS 6, Panoramic mode. October 2012

Double trouble? That's my wonderful husband (aka "The Musician") on the left, then he walked behind me and stood on my right while I scanned the scene in the panoramic mode with my iPhone. (click the photos to enlarge) To take the panoramic photos, you'll need to upgrade your iPhone to IOS/6. Cool trick, huh?

The Musician then took my photo in the Tuileries, outside the Louvre Museum. We're celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary and having a great time catching up with expat friends and eating far too much. That said, we walked at least six hours today.

À bientôt!

That's me with the umbrella on the left and again on the right.
Who else wears sunglasses in the rain?

Louvre from the Tuileries.

View from terrace atop Galeries Lafayette.

View of Île de la Cité.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Photo Fun: Come Indoors Where It Is Cool

Come on back to the family room.

It's so hot outside in the garden; let's go indoors where it is cool so that I can show you a decorating project that's fun and easy for anyone with a digital camera and a computer.

Every few years, I like to change the "art" on my walls. I use the word "art" in the sense of being creative with what's unique and original in my life, rather than owning any masterpieces. The photos that I've chosen make me smile.

Previously, I've used framed photos from our travels in Italy. Recently, I decided to swap out Italy photos with those from Paris, France.

Architecture is a favorite photographic subject of mine. I'm not a professional photographer, but there are favorite photos that please me enough to view on my walls. Color photos don't really work with our family room color scheme and furniture. Therefore, I use a little photo editing magic (iPhoto® on my MacBook®) to convert my photos to sepia tone for framing. I then upload my photos to Shutterfly® and purchase 8 x 10 prints for under $3.00 per print.

My frames were purchased in 2006, therefore, I didn't have to purchase new frames. All of my frames came from Pottery Barn® and were purchased on sale. The mats were included with the purchase of the frames.

Inexpensive. Unique. Original. Memories.

To decide which of your photos will work, the resolution must be sufficient for the size of the print you want. One of the reasons that I like Shutterfly® is because their software will tell you whether your photo has the quality (in pixels) to be printed anywhere from as large as a poster down to a postcard.

If you go this route, pay attention to the edges of the photos. Shutterfly will ask you if the cropping is okay. They automatically set the cropping, but you may shift your image within the allowed space to ensure that no parts are cut off. Always preview the cropped image online before you put the order in the shopping cart.

The Louvre original in color, before cropped.

The Louvre photo as sepia and cropped.

Just a few of my candidates for framing.
I created a side-by-side collage to use to decide
which photos to print. Not all were chosen.

When grouping photos I like for them to "relate" to each other. For example, a set of four photos are building facades. I also use parts of bridges as a set; steeples as a set; or, sculptures as a set. Here is an example of the four building facades used in a photo grouping.

Matted and framed:
Top (L to R): The Louvre; Notre Dame
Bottom: Saint-Michel; Sacre Coeur
Paris, France. 

The four photos shown on the wall
to the right of the family heirloom mirror.

On another wall, the photos are related
to three different bridges in Paris.
These frames are the standard "gallery" style
sold by Pottery Barn®.

Don't hesitate to use your photos to decorate your house. Whether you choose color, black and white, sepia or other special effects—your favorite photos reflect your experiences and memories. Go for what makes you happy!

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Zooming in on a New Compact Camera

Travelers, gardeners and bloggers have one thing in common—they take lots of photos. For a few years, I've been in pursuit of a camera that handles the majority of my issues.

When I travel, I don't check bags anymore, but that's another story. I pack all of my clothes and belongings in one bag, but that's also another story. So, I require a small and lightweight camera to meet my limited baggage space. Given my past experience with a SLR camera and the flexibility of multiple lenses, I prefer having wide angle and zoom capabilities.

For the last two years, I've been using a Canon SX10 IS camera with a 20x zoom lens. The body resembles a DSLR, but the zoom and wide angle lens are built-in to the camera, so there are no extra pieces to carry on a trip. The camera weighs 1.5 lbs, uses four AA batteries and does not fit in a pocket. To use the full capability of the zoom, it is best to use a tripod for stability. I don't want to haul a tripod to Europe. After carrying the camera around Paris in 2009, I was "over it" from the inconvenience of the size and weight. That said, the lens flexibility is wonderful and I am very pleased with the quality of the images, both at home in the garden and on trips. My only complaint is in hauling the camera around.

Since then, I've been following camera reviews for "Compact Super Zoom Travel Cameras" that are small, point-and-shoot with manual options, but have a long enough lens to meet my demands. Based upon the reviews, I decided to try the Samsung HZ35W model (but, I got the HZ30W without the GPS capability). I waited months for the camera to go on sale before purchasing it—and the price was so unbelievable that Circuit City has sold out as of the writing of this story! (Use the links to the reviews and to the Circuit City site to read about all the details about the camera.)

I took the camera to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro to try out the capabilities, image quality, color accuracy, ease-of-use and portability.

For most of the shots, I decided to use the "Automatic" setting so that I didn't have to keep track of any manual tinkering that is possible. The Samsung is 12.2 MP with a lens capable of 24-360mm. There is a 15x optical zoom and a 5x digital zoom. For the longest zoom (the elephants), I used the "Scene" mode in "landscape" to stretch the length as the elephants were far and away across a large pasture from the observation point.

Samsung HZ30W in automatic mode
using the optical zoom at 15x. Full sun; moving animals.

Samsung HZ30W in landscape ("Scene") mode
using both the optical and digital zoom for 75x!
No tripod was used, but the stabilization
capability worked well. Full sun; moving elephant.

The wonderful world of true colors! Red is such a difficult color to capture accurately. This Samsung delivers the best color accuracy that I've ever experienced with a digital camera in automatic mode!

For this review, I did no post-processing on these photos to balance exposure, color or brighten shadows. I reduced the size for faster uploading. (click photos to enlarge)

At home--red and white flowers indoors with no flash. Macro setting.

Scarlet Ibis inside the zoo aviary.
Automatic mode using 15x optical zoom.

A duck of many colors inside the aviary. Automatic mode with 15x zoom.

Hummingbird in flight; through glass window; indoors; partial
zoom; automatic mode.

Macro with automatic setting. Indoors without a flash in the aviary.

I am thrilled with the image quality, macro and zoom results in the automatic setting. However, the Samsung has a big bag of tricks for those who wish to play with the manual settings—adjusting the exposure, compensating for backlighting, shutter speed and more. There is a dual (optical and digital) stabilization capability to reduce camera shake. There are many point-and-shoot options for face detection, smile detection, blink detection and scene composition.

The camera takes 720p HD quality video at 30 frames per second (I tried this out, but didn't want to upload 45mb of an elephant swaying). You can also record memos separately—a handy option when you want to remember what you are photographing during travels or the different flowers in the garden.

There is a HDMI connection if you want to connect to a high-definition TV. The charger uses the USB adapter so that you can charge the battery while it is installed in the camera. An independent battery-only charger is a separate purchase.

Photos can be edited on the camera, or you may upload to your computer to use an editing package of your preference. I've not yet tried in-camera editing, but the options are similar to those in my Apple® iPhoto software.

There is no viewfinder, but the back 3-inch AMOLED screen is large and easy to view, even when wearing sunglasses. The camera allows you to read all of the options in text, instead of just symbols, on the screen. The grip is easy and comfortable, so I don't feel like I'm in danger of dropping the camera.

As for meeting my travel requirements, the Samsung fits easily into my purse when not in use. It's a bit larger (2.38"H x 4.21"W x 1.13" D) than some other compact cameras, but men with a jacket pocket will have no problem stowing this one away. The macro and zoom lens satisfies my desire for a wide range of distance focusing.

Whether snapping garden shots or travel memories, the flexibility of the Samsung and the quality of the images make this camera well worth the sale price of $151, including shipping!

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

GGW Picture This Photo Contest: My Favorite Photo

Seeing a Monarch butterfly—in any stage of the lifecycle—is, and continues to be, the biggest thrill for me. Capturing this shot of a Monarch caterpillar as it begins the formation of a chrysalis is the photo that makes me happiest.

What I like about the photo (click to enlarge) is the depth-of-field, the lavender bloom of the lantana and the detail of the caterpillar attached to the arched plume of fountain grass. The background is the gray flagstone of my garden walk.

This caterpillar left the planting of milkweed in the garden and chose to use a container arrangement for the chrysalis! The Monarch butterfly successfully emerged and was also captured by my camera.

The Monarch butterflies will hopefully return to my area soon. There is now even more milkweed in my garden, a Monarch Waystation, ready to host the amazing stages of the Monarch lifecycle.

This photo is my entry for the Gardening Gone Wild Picture This Photo Contest for June.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel.

Flower Recognition Software

I have over 10,000 photographs stored on my computer. I would have more, but I decided to be ruthless and delete a few thousand. I'm sure I'll soon regret that action, so the photos are still sitting in the electronic trash can. Dumpster-diving on a computer isn't too messy.

I store the photos month-by-month throughout the calendar year. After the year ends, I decide how to reorganize the photos so that I can easily find a certain flower that bloomed in.... was it May or June?

Last year, I started adding keywords (tags) to my photos so that I could filter my search. For tags, I used the location in the garden as well as color (magenta, orange, red, yellow, etc.). I'd like to tag every flower by variety, but that seems like too much work... from Agastache to Zinnia.

I'm on to a new idea that will take the gardening world by storm!

I use an Apple MacBook with iPhoto. The iPhoto software has "face recognition" capabilities. I tried it out for everyone in our family and it worked beautifully! Searching those 10,000 photos, it recognized each and everyone of us.

The most amazing thing is that this face recognition software can pick a face out of a crowd! Yes! It picked up faces in places that I didn't even know were in the photos! I was relieved that Osama bin Laden nor any other terrorists were found among my thousands of photos.

This iPhoto feature posts all of the "Faces" on a corkboard background. Click on a person. Magic. All of the photos of that person are displayed. Easy, cute, clever and it works great!

Of course, being the technical geek that I am, I decided to try this face recognition software on flower photos.

The coneflower (echinacea) has a very recognizable "face" in my opinion. I pulled up a happy flower face and told iPhoto to "Name" it "Coneflower."

Unfortunately, iPhoto couldn't recognize Coneflower's face among the thousands of photos. Hmm... Is it unrecognizable because the coneflower doesn't have two eyes?

Undaunted, I tried Gaillardia's face, but had no results.

Just think. If we had flower recognition software, we could easily organize our gardening photos. Flower Recognition Software would be able to pick a coneflower out of a garden full of gaillardias.

Excuse me, but I'm off to write an email to Apple's iPhoto development team!



Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks/copyrights/patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

How to Automatically Add Your Blog Name to Each Post

May I see your identification please? Theft comes in many forms and recently garden bloggers have discovered that there are bad guys who will steal our content.

Including a blog name and link in a "signature" on your posts allows the reader to click back to the original source. It would take some effort for a thief to remove a signature from every post, so they may move on to easier targets.

Using a blog post template is an easy and automatic way to add that "blog signature" information for all new posts!

With a template, you don't have to retype the same information over-and-over again. However, you are still free to change the wording slightly if you want to make the information unique for a specific blog post.

My instructions are for using Blogger from Google™. If you are using another host, such as Wordpress™, then there is probably a similar option available.

Go to your Dashboard in Blogger. Listed under your blog name, choose Settings

Click on the tab Formatting

Scroll down to Post Template

In the box to the right, you can enter text and code that you want to appear in the Blogger EDITOR whenever you create a NEW POST.

My example links to my blog so that a reader can always click back to the original source. You don't have to include a link, of course. Save the settings when you are finished. You can come back and edit this again at any time and it will be used on all subsequent new posts.

The example in the purple box below shows the code magnified. You can copy and paste this code into your post temple, then just substitute your information where I have included my name, blog url address and blog name.

Since I'm a freelance writer, I include my name as a byline. Many bloggers want to remain anonymous and will not add their real name. Edit the information to fit your needs.

Remember - Only include the information that you want to share with the world!

(Note: I typically put the period outside the blog name url as shown in the magnified code. To make the code easier for you to read in the next examples, it is part of the blog name)

Below is the coding shown line-by-line so that you can see the different parts of the example.

I use a smaller font size than my blog post by applying the "-2" html coding. I also use italics for my signature. These are optional codes that you may not want to use. Please note that each line has a wrapper, meaning that there is code to begin the formatting and code to end the formatting. The matching codes are shown in matching font colors.

When you create a NEW POST within the "Edit Html" mode, then the text will automatically appear in the Blogger EDITOR window as Html code.

If you create a NEW POST with the "Compose" mode, then your text will appear as normal without the Html codes shown. (You may click back-and-forth between the html and the compose modes if you wish.)

You may edit the text and code if you want to add a date, location, other information to change the wording to apply to an individual post. To write your post, just start typing in front of the automatic code.

Html Mode:



Compose Mode:

The result:

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel.