After Thomas passed away, we wanted to celebrate and honour his life, so we planted a tree in his memory. It has been almost a year now, and since so many of you remember him fondly through his appearances here on the blog, I thought you’d love to see ‘his’ tree opening its very first blooms.
We chose a cherry tree from Leafland here in New Zealand. They produce what I call proper trees. Their trees are established, at least two/three years old and standing around 2 metres/6ft or more in height so no waiting impatiently for stuff to happen like blossom, height, leaves…
Thomas’s tree is a Prunus cerasoides.
Prunus cerasoides ‘Puddum’ is a beautiful upright tree that produces small single pink cluster flowers in late winter, attracting birds and bees. Tui birds love the blossoms, as they are nectar laden. Leaves emerge green during spring and summer, but autumn transforms them into orange and yellow, before dropping in the winter. Prunus cerasoides is deciduous and native to Eastern Asia, southern China, northern India, Burma and Thailand.
Leafland
I don’t often go out waving my camera in the pouring rain but this time I did and I hope you love the flowers as much as I do. I worry they need to be a bit brighter, but this could be my computer screen – what do you think?
I used a touch of Luminar’s Enhance tool and a small amount of sharpening at a very low setting so the blossoms are clear.
Like many of you I proceed carefully when I edit my images as even a small edit can make a big difference to your end result.
The blossoms look vivid, and I feel the rain adds a touch of magic. Especially as I grabbed my camera that still had my longer 55-250mm zoom lens on not my favourite 50mm nifty-fifty!
I stood back a bit and focused in from a distance on the blossom at f5.6 and ISO 400. The sky was very overcast making things a bit gloomy, but, the setting meant I got some nice soft focus bokeh that makes the blossom really stand out.
Needless to say Thomas left us far too soon and Toulouse misses his bestie, but I hope his special tree will last a long time.
Cat Photographer, Instructor and Writer
Professional Member of the Cat Writers Association,
Winner of the Kuykendall Image Award
Published at the Guardian newspaper
What a lovely idea, and most splendid blooms that will always evoke sweet memories.
And such wonderful and creative pictures which show those blooms off a treat, adding a special touch of the rain often pays dividends, as in this case.
ERin
Thank you eRin, it was worth getting a bit damp!
Wow, stunning photos! The flowers are beautiful!
What gorgeous blooms on your tree! The rain gives them that very ‘just fresh’ appearance! I read somewhere that photographers of flowers or other plants often take a spray bottle with them to give their subjects that dewy fresh look.
Yes, I read it too. it makes sense when you see the effect in action doesn’t it!?