Weekly Photo Challenge: Dreamy
Everything that’s lovely is
But a brief, dreamy kind of delight.
― W.B. Yeats, Poems
I like the things around me to be beautiful and
slightly dreamy, with a feeling of worldliness.
― Alice Temperley
This week’s photo challenge is “dreamy”, which Wikitionary defines as “having a pleasant or romantic atmosphere”.
The Lewis Ginter Botanical gardens in Richmond, Virginia are both pleasant and romantic. Weddings happen nearly every weekend for brides who want a romantic venue. For me, it’s a reminder of the beauty of nature (albeit, a groomed nature) as I walk the paths, see what’s new every few weeks, and simply relax.
It nurtures my creativity to go frequently to the botanical gardens. I have my favorite places to look for pictures. I also spend time trying to find something new to photograph, even if just a different angle to what I normally record with my camera. New places are a lot of fun – everything is exciting! But the tried and true is also good and it encourages me to be a more creative photographer to photograph with passion and not get ho-hum about being there.
The above picture was developed using Topaz Labs Black and White Filters, with a white vignette and frame around the edges. I like the ethereal feel it gives to my favorite greenhouse. The sky that day was overcast and as you can see in the original below, the clouds barely have a discernible shape to them. I have many beautiful pictures of the greenhouse, so I didn’t want to spend hours trying to improve this.
If you go to the bottom of this post, you’ll see the greenhouse several years ago on a sunny day with big puffy white clouds. You can tell by the plants around the water that picture was taken in a different year.
A different view of the greenhouse from this year is in this post and a night shot from the Christmas holidays is here.
To see everything I’m doing with my 31 Days of Nurturing My Creativity, click here.
To see what others are doing with their 31 Days project, click here.
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I am a backyard adventurer, philosopher and observer, recording my life in journals and photographs. Visit my blog at www.livingtheseasons.com.
Living The Seasons 
I like the photo both in the original and with the dreamy effects. And yes, that is a familiar view at Lewis Ginter. Lovely. I like your 31-day challenge. I need to have something like that to focus me. :-)
Thanks! Although I think you have plenty of your own accomplishments without a 31 Day Challenge!
I do love the dreamy state of that picture. I am very partial to pictures of “old”, and paths, and steps. :) This is so fun!!
I’m glad you’re enjoying it – thanks so much for the comment!
Wow, the picture was beautiful even without the dreamy effects…wonderful!
Thank you! The clouds actually turned out better than I expected. I didn’t think I would salvage it.