Day lilies and Dreams of Summer

"Day Lily #1"
Digital Photograph

"Day Lily #2"
Digital Photograph


Taking Time

If one steps closer,
a white day lily reveals
rainbows tucked within

Spring flowers are coming out, albeit slowly, but the photos I took above were taken in the heat of July of last year. The beauty of photography is that you can pull out images taken days, months, or years ago and stoke your creative fires. Day lilies emerge later in the summer season than many other flowers, but my breath is always taken away when they do arrive. These white daylilies I found nestled amongst their neighbors, who were decked out in every color of the rainbow. They actually jumped out from the rest, believe it or not. These particular white flowers are rather challenging to photograph and to paint, I might add. White subjects in general can try one's patience, but I still find them very appealing as subject matter. When photographing them, one must be very careful with the lighting and exposure as the white can get washed out and details lost. And regarding painting something that is white, usually there are subtle shades of pink, blue, purple and other soft colors that can be depicted to make these kinds of subjects more interesting. Imagination needs to be tapped into to move beyond the reality of what the eye sees.

The images above are photographs that have been tweeked a bit in photoshop. I wanted to convey a dreamy effect with transparent layers appearing to show through. The top image has a cooler cast to it; the bottom image I added a little warmer color to the stamens and outside edges. I'm not sure which one I prefer, so have posted them both here. Would welcome your input and thoughts about which day lily is more appealing.

And now, I shall go search for some daffodils and hyacinths, I don't want to shortchange the Spring Season just yet. We all have our time for glory, patience required.