Laura Griffin Designs

I forgot to post an image I took in Renee’s garden a few weeks ago. What beautiful things flowers are! Can anyone help me with the name of this?

We spent the 4th of July in Tulsa visiting family & my Mom’s garden was in full bloom. She has such an amazing green thumb (which I unfortunately did not inherit – I can kill just about any plant within a mile of my house!) *LOL*. Here are just a few of the blossoms abounding.

The colors in this Lantana just make me happy looking at them:

This is a Butterfly Bush (sans butterflies at the moment):

I just love the geometric design in this Dill:

And here’s a lone Black-eyed Susan (there were hundreds in that patch of the garden!):

My parents also picked up a new toy for the backyard – a portable disc golf basket.

Over the holiday, I had the opportunity to make another stardust art doll with my sister-in-law, Renee. I’ll post some images shortly of our creations. They were lots of fun!

Was out walking & this lil’ guy was hiding in my neighbor’s back garden this evening. He’s an outdoor cat that frequents my condo courtyard.

Also wanted to share some images of beautiful coneflowers growing just a few doors down…

I finally took my new macro lens out for a test run this past weekend. The Arboretum was having their Dallas Blooms festival, and it was an amazing sight! The earth was exploding with gorgeous flowers. The poppies & tulips were particularly beautiful. I also captured some great images of daisies, iris, daffodils, and more… over 150 photos in all. I’m posting some of my favs in the new “photography” section of my gallery. Here is a sampling, but click here to go the gallery and see them all.

I learned about a fascinating photography technique today that gives almost any photograph an ethereal, dreamy quality. It is called the Orton technique & is super simple to do in Photoshop. Below are some samples I made today & here is a link to a tutorial so you can learn how to do this yourself. It works particularly great on landscapes, but also works on portraits as well.
Close-up of flowers from NYC Arboretum. First pic is original. Second uses the Orton technique:

Yellow flowering bushes at NYC Arboretum. First pic is original. Second uses the Orton technique: [...]