I had the good fortune of traveling in Eastern Europe earlier this year and took a walk after a light rainfall in Deva, Romania.  It's been a long winter where I live and also for Eastern Europe.  When I saw the daffodils slowing emerging on March 30th I was encouraged that spring finally and slowly was arriving.

On this day in late March, I knew that the rain was coming.  The clouds were intense.  The day before, I had pre-envisioned a picture of the daffodils with a few raindrops on on the emerging buds.  So, I enthusiastically brought out my camera after the rain stopped falling and started to search for the composition that I was envisioning.

Once I took the photo, I was quite pleased with what I saw.  But, I wanted the rain and the yellow of the daffodil to pop.  I thought about using my iPad and a camera app, called Snapseed, to add the saturation, detail, and frame that was in line with my original vision.

Here is the resulting image:

I was delighted with the final image.  I could feel the early spring rain with the drops so obvious on the buds and also suggesting movement downward, which gave the final photo a sense of the dramatic.  I was also impresed with the yellow tones and the blurred background so your eye could concentrate on the yellow buds and the raindrops.

So, what did I learn from this:

• I always try to have a mental list of the images that I would like to take.  There are a number of potential images on my photographic "hot list" and I actively look for the situations that have the right blending of composition, light, and exposure to get the image that I have pre-visualized.
• Experimenting with computer and tablet apps is an important learning and helps me to grow my photographic repertoire.  It allows me to think about what I can get out of the camera and what I can do in post processing to get the look that I was striving for.  It actually helps to push my ability to self-express.

And there is a different experience of working with an image on a tablet, where you "touch" the image as you make refinements compared to using the mousepad or a Wacom tablet when you are working on a computer.  There is an added dimension of human touch and intimacy as you work with the image on a tablet.

An interesting sidenote to all of this is that I actually "processed" this image while flying on a business trip last week.  The person next to me started to admire my photo and that lead to a very interesting discussion of what people do on their iPads.  When I travel, I tend to like to process a few images, it relaxes me.  A topic for another blog article.  Stay tuned!