I purchased peach and cherry tree last Spring to keep my lonely apple tree company and they all struggled through the Summer and Fall together. From experience I knew that the apple tree was most unhappy inside the conservatory, so this year I decided to leave it outside with the other two throughout the winter, keeping my fingers crossed that I wasn’t sending it to its death. Lo and behold, this Spring all three trees have exploded in blooms on the sliver of a balcony where they are perched. This is truly the first time that they have been so prolific and generous with their blossoms and I had just had to return the favour. (Yes, fertilising them with coffee powder remains from the machine does work!)
Anyone who follows my photography knows that I rarely photograph flowers, simply because it doesn’t interest me and I could never figure out how to achieve the clarity of the close-up I wanted. Second, in the same manner that many photographers will skip over cat or dog photos, I will rapidly scroll past flowers. On photography websites I have little, low or no esteem for flowers, especially stylised ones.
Since #lockdown and #socialdistancing began I decided to practice on my weak spots, not to become a specialist, but simply to get out of the rut, push myself beyond my comfort zones, and figure out certain techniques that have been haunting me for the longest time. It has been a lot of trial and error, and post-processing these experiments has been equally insightful.
Enter the ND+10 filter, stage right with no clue, cue or queue… and suddenly everything makes sense and is definitely clearer now! There is barely any post-processing done on these images, the filters did all the work for me. Yes, I used the standard UV filter as well, and unlike the work done for portraits (Lightroom, Photoshop and Luminar), I just needed slight adjustments on Lightroom.
FrogDiva Thoughts 
Such pretty flowers! I have yet to use filters, I’d really like to give them a try.