With winter receding, I spring to my camera to catch the first flowers.
Although Cheri and I work hard at surrounding our house with flowers, the biggest and best displays involve no work at all. They just happen, courtesy of our trees: a Bradford pear along the street, and two large apple trees at the house front corners.
Capturing this shot required solving several problems. I wanted a vantage point that would take in all three trees and convey the way they surround our home with the beauty of Knoxville springtime. Unfortunately, there are several other flowering trees as well — notably dogwoods along the front bank — that don’t bloom till several weeks later.
Right now, the dogwoods (and a couple of others) look dead. By the time they burst into color, the pear and apples will have dropped their petals. Meanwhile, from most angles, they block the view of the current crop of blooms.
The above shot (suggested by Cheri) is from the only location we could find that captures all three blossoming trees while omitting late-bloomers. Taking in the whole sweep required using the iPhone’s panoramic mode. I put off taking it for several days, because I wanted bright sunlight. (I could have applied a sun filter from a cloudy day, but there’s no substitute for the real thing.)
Below is a shot of the same house from a spot diagonally across the street. Along the front bank you can see the dogwoods. These are tantalizingly close to blooming, but I expect that by the time they do, it will be too late for the ones in bloom today.
Update: Here is a more recent shot of the dogwoods along the front:
