It is early Sunday morning, almost two hours before sunrise, still dark and silent outdoors. What shall I post? Some bloggers prepare their postings well in advance, but I tend to select photos and decide on an approach only when I am ready to begin composing the actual posting. I do keep a mental catalogue of candidate images that I have shot recently, but my final selection is frequently influenced by my mood and feelings.
This morning I am thinking of color and composition, a consequence perhaps of my recent efforts with watercolor. As many of you know, watercolor painting often forces you to mix your own colors, a critical factor if you want to create a mood or match something in real life. So, for example, to paint the flesh of a watermelon recently, I had to combine two different shades of red and to paint some gray stormy clouds, I had to mix a blue and a reddish brown.
I was thinking of colors when I spotted these beautiful daylilies on Thursday in the garden of my friend and neighbor Cindy Dyer. I was struck by the deep red of the flowers and the yellow-tipped stamens that reminded me of flickering matches. I also really liked the triangular arrangement of the three flowers that presented itself. It is so much harder to compose an image with multiple subjects than one with a single subject, which is why you will rarely see me photograph groups of anything.
I hope that you enjoyed this little burst of color as you start (or continue) your Sunday activities. Have a blessed day and be sure to keep an eye out for the wonderful colors in your life.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Wow, they really do look like flickering matches! I hope everyone who visits clicks on the photo until they get maximum enlargement (not so subtle hint to anyone reading this) !!!
Advice taken and appreciated!
Thanks, Liz, for encouraging others to enlarge the image. I always hope that viewers will do so in order to see the details better, but sometimes don’t remember to remind them of that. As for the flickering matches, I am glad to know that you can see the same visual analogies as I do. Sometimes I will tell people that something in my photo reminds me of something else and they will look at me with a blank look and say, “I don’t see it.” 🙂
Beautiful post, beautiful photos. Thank you for sharing, Mike.
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Thanks, Mitzy, for you very kind words.
Spontaneous blogging! I’m impressed, couldn’t work that way myself! Great image, I followed Liz’s advice to see it in extra detail. Beautiful.
Thanks for you thoughtful comments, David. Different styles for different personalities–I tend to write the way that I speak, i.e. in a stream-of-consciousness style that is often meandering and sometimes long-winded. It has always been my preferred approach, even way back in my college days. Many of my postings could use some editing, but often I will press the publish button as soon as I have finished writing the posting and inserting the photos. I like your use of the term “spontaneous blogging,” which seems to be a good fit for my approach. In some ways it is akin to the vlogging style of some of the YouTubers whose channels I follow. They simply turn on the camera and start talking. Usually they have at least thought through their basic message and maybe made a few notes, but that is about it for preparation. Thanks, buy the way, for following Liz’s advice. Most of my images have a good amount of detail that is only revealed when viewers enlarge the images, especially if viewing them on a cell phone. I compose the posts on a desktop computer with a relatively big monitor, so I am used to seeing the larger sized images.
Yes, they do look like flickering matches. Thank you for that suggestion. And thank you again, Mike, for another beautiful photo. I have a similar lily in my garden and it’s a favorite. The older I get the more I need vibrant colors in my life.
Thanks, Ann. I too am drawn increasingly to bright, saturated colors. Somehow they warm my heart and lift my spirits. I know that during the dreary days winter, I am thrilled whenever I see the bright red color of a male Northern Color. Not long ago, I bought a pair of traditional-looking Converse sneakers that are a very bright aqua in color, a bold color that makes me smile whenever I wear them. 🙂
A gorgeous photo of these beautiful flowers! The painter, Wassily Kandinsky, said : “Color is a power which directly influences the soul.” As has become my habit, due to Benjamin’s influence, enlarging the photos is automatically performed. Following the second enlargement the stamens of these colorful daylilies become an even more brilliant row of flickering matches. This is indeed a lovely gift on a Sunday morning! Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
Thanks, Ellen. I love the Kandinsky quotation. I like the fact that Benjamin has you so well trained. 🙂 I like to post images larger than necessary in order to let people enlarge them in order to see more of the details. My friend Liz from New Zealand encouraged people to do so in this case. I am happy that so many people seem to agree that the stamens look like flickering matches–when I imagine that I see things, I am never sure if others will see the same things as I do.
Great post Mike. Thanks for the splash of color!🌸🌸🌸
Thanks, Suzette. I love bright colors. Those colors are relatively common where I live during the spring and summer months, but I am conscious of the fact that I have some subscribers in New Zealand and Australia who are now in the midst of the gray days of their winter–they especially need the splashes of color.
These are beautiful, Mike!
Thanks, Dan.
I enjoyed your words with the splash of color! I do indeed look for the color in life! Happy Sunday!
Thanks, the world is full of beauty and color and it is sad that we are so often distracted that we don’t even notice. For me, one of the keys is to slow down, which is hard in our fast-paced world.
So true!
So beautiful – I love that rich color!
Thanks, Eliza. There are still some of Cindy’s lilies that have not yet bloomed, so I am hoping that I will have more colors to feature. 🙂
What a beautiful image! The stamens do look like matches.
Thanks, Nina. The “match” idea was was what immediately came to mind when I saw the stamens. Do kids in the younger generations even know what wooded matches look like–there are a lot fewer smokers than when I was growing up and those that smoke mostly seem to use lighters. Even with candles and charcoal fires, a lot of people use the long-necked lighters. 🙂