Budapest, Hungary. (05.30.)

The flowers of spring slowly giving their place to the summer flowers by the end of May. Shot was taken today morning while walking with my dog. :) (05.29.)

Linum austriacum. A grateful little flower when it comes to picture it with a camera, thanks to it's beautiful color; at least that's the case in my opinion. Namely I found that some colors are harder to catch properly on picture than others. For the record, I hardly ever could shoot a proper picture of a bright white flower like the lily of the valley, but there's countless other beautifully balanced ones about this Linum above, or violets for instance. (05.28.) 

Downtown Rijeka, just before the summer season starts. Croatia at high season (during the summer months) are usually packed with tourists, but just before all hell breaks loose, one can enjoy nice sunny weather - way cooler than summertime though - but actually totally allright for sightseeing and hiking, and while you at it, the density is absolute comfortable on the in general. (05.27.)

Bit of a retrospection for today. That's one of the first macro I ever did with my Canon, and given the circumstances - holding it in hand, and using the kit-lens - it's a surpisingly OK picture. I do not know the name of the flowers, but it's still gorgeous. (05.26.)

A species from Stipeae genus, commonly called feather grass. Shot was made with my new 70-300mm lens, at early stages of exploring it's capabilities. (05.25.)  

Bellis perennis, as known as common daisy. A frequent little flower, appearing in almost every garden. What is not so commonly known, that the young leaves can be eaten as a salad, or used as a tea. In ancient Rome the juice that can be extracted from the flowers was used to treat sword wounds and spear cuts. (05.24.)

Shot was taken yesterday, near Pázmánd, Hungary. The flowers in May are spectacular there, too.  As I still do not own a tripod, this sharpness is about the maximum I can manage to reach while holding the camera in hands. I'm not a shooter that's for sure, judging by my ever-unsteady hands. :) (05.23.)

I promised yesterday no more waterfalls, and that being said: todays picture is a macro from a flowering Rosa canina. I always wanted a kind of sharp picture of a bee in a situation like this. I have to tell this particular little fellow was all about fructification...or collecting farina for her colony; depend on which end one wants to grab the story.  The shot was taken near Pázmánd, Hungary, today  /f8.0; 1/500s; ISO100./ (05.22)

I swear this is about to be the last waterfall photo from Plitvice. I really do enjoy making this kind of shots, I found it ever fascinating, mainly because of the huge contrast between the rushing water and the still-standing flora surrounding the whole set. The bend of the road can be seen on the picture usually packed with people trying to take the best shot possible while standing a few feet away from the rushing water. I have the pleasure to catch in it's best shape, which is empty in this case. (05.21.)

Back to the macros today. I caught this beauty on the way to the beach back in Croatia. For the record, although it's only a few hundred kilometers to the southwest, the presence of the sea is undeniable, and easily noticable in the flora. (05.20.)

The twin of the previous b&w shot, taken in Bakar, Croatia. Tripping up around the Croatian coastline, one can feel many different emotions, and experience a huge contrast both in infrastructure-wise, as well as in architecture. The differences are everywhere, even in their lifestyle, and the way as the locals are rolling along with it. There's houses that bears gunshot holes from the Yugoslavian wars from two decades ago, and never been restored. There's streets that got less attention than others closer to the sea, or lower on the hillside. And at the same time, one can drive along the coast for 30 miles, and sees nothing just perfectly placed apartments, restaurants, caffees, pubs, piers, without even suspecting that there's gunshot wounds on a forgotten house uphill; because all that matters: be nice, organized, spat and polished out in front. Sadly, the rest is forgettable for the average tourists. No offense, just if the cap fits; ...You know. (05.19.)

When I shot this picture back in Bakar, Croatia, I immediately thought that I would be perfect in b&w. After that when I was about to set it to b&w, I felt that it could make a proper color image too. So first, here goes the b&w going with the original idea.
Bakar btw is a stunning little town, everyone who's around should explore it, prefereably right after Rijeka, as the contrast is just jawdropping. (05.19.) 

The picture was shot in Plitvice National Park, Croatia the day before yesterday. The shutter speed was set for 1/13s, I could manage to hold it in bare hands though. I'm in the need of a tripod, but too afraid to start to use it, as it slows down every process terribly. But improves picture quality, and in the same time reduces the quantity of shite shots piling up on the memory card. (05.18.)

I was aiming to something else honestly, but at the end of the day I'm happy with the result. (f/5.6; 1/500s; ISO160) (05.18.)

The pictures of our Croatian trip are coming up in the next few days - as I promised.
The conditions weren't the best possible for close-up shots - as this time of the year is often very windy down there - but I still could manage a few macros allright. This one is from Senj also; I feel kind of familiar the flower, but frankly I am not even close to have the name at the tip of my tounge... :)  (05.17.) 

Just got back from a weekend trip to Croatia. I am gonna post a few pictures in the next couple of days! :) First, this is the town of Senj, in Lika-Senj county. (05.16.)

Random Croatian flowers. (05.15)

Dianthus carthusianorum, or Carthusian pink from the carnation family. Common flower from May - more often from June - throughout all summer. (05.14.)

Having a satisfied dog is priceless. Spending an afternoon with a satisfied dog is even better.
The knowledge that we practically saved her life when we took her off the street and out of asylums at the time when she was only of 3 months old -  is invaluable. Sophie, a half eyed mix of - probably -  jack russel and some staffie. (05.13.) 

The bend of the Danube with the town of Szob.

The mountains on the picture as follows:

on the right hand side there's part of the Börzsöny mountains; while on the left hand side - separated by the river Ipoly as a border - the Kováčovské kopce can be recognized, situated at slovakian soil as recent history goes. (05.12)  

Nonea pulla, or in english simply nonea, or monkswort. From my native language, her name can be literally translated to english as nun-flower.
The dark purple color of the flowers sometimes seen as almost black. Found it quite hard to photograph, due to the unexpectedly huge contrast between the green-greyish leaves and the deep dark purple petals. (and the fact, that my dog had to lie on my back while I was crawling in the grass taking the picture. )
(05.11)

Every root of the Adonis vernalis (pheasant's eye) worths 20 bucks in my country - at least according to the law that covers our ptotected plants by goodwill value. In the blunt background there's dozens Muscari neglectum blooming (grape hyacinth).
One can - if shrewdly enough - figure out, that these are not particularly May flowers. I must confess, the shot is few weeks old, but due to work and crappy weather in the last 48 hours I have no chance whatsoever to shoot proper fresh images of our tipical May flowers out there. I'm sorry, I'll do my best next time. (05.10) 

Origanum majorana, the wild sibling of the herb - which common in nearly every kitchen - the marjoram. (05.09)

Ripe fruits of Taraxum officinale, commonly known as dandelion. Common thing in every meadow, but the complexitiy here, what's created by nature; that's blows the mind away. (05.08.)

Back to landscapes today. The river is the Danube, north of Budapest, at the place called Danube bend - or something like that. Here, the river changes flowing direction, from west-to east to north to south. Spectacular place. Standing point is the southern bastion of Börzsöny, some 450 m a.s.l.
The villages down there is Nagymaros at this side of the river, and Visegrád by the other riverbank.  (05.07)

New lenses in use! That's practically the first sharp close-up I could manage with the new 70-300 lens I got two days ago. (ISO 800, f5.0, 1/80s) Can't wait to try it out on a tripod.
I already posted one pic of this flower here, this is the Pulmonaria officinalis, or common lungwort. (05.06.) 

Salvia pratensis, or commonly: meadow sage. The occasion of the two pictures is simple as this: I started posting photos a month ago, so on one hand it's for "celebrating" a month, and on the other, there was one day, when I missed out a picture, so it's kind of a supplemental one. And just for the record: I couldn't decide with which one should I go for today. :)  (05.05)

Another participant from the Geranium genus - after last friday's post on herb Robert - this time the Geranium sanguineum, or commonly known as bloody geranium. (05.04.)

For the first time since my photoblog running, here's a close-up of a young tree. To be more accurate, a horse chestnut from the  family of Sapindaceae. Shot was taken today morning after a massive rain at night. The youngster definitely gonna live a rough life, due to it's neighbouring: some unforgivingly thick, middle aged oak forest. (05.03.) 

During this last month, as I tried to shoot and posted a picture every (well almost every) day, slowly I started to feel the need for a more precise lens for the camera to do the job with, I mean to be able to shoot more detailed close-ups if possible. I figured a few other things out about DSLR photograpy, and now I feel that I am definately sratching the surface of the subject.

I have no intention to break this series of posts throughout May neither, so more macros coming up each day, hopefully better and sharper ones as well.

I have no proper knowledge of smoothly watermarking every of my photos ( at least not in my linux distro), so as a protection, I rescale each of them to 0.5 Mpx as it's virtually impossible to use by anyone other than a facebook cover photo. :)  That's probably made them little less detailed, losing some edge here and there, that I must apologize for.

My botanical knowlegde however still kindof sucks, as unfortunately I have no idea what's the above pictured flower whatsoever. I'll try to improve that side of the project as well in the future.
(05.02.)

Marking the beginning of May, she surely does.(05.01.)