Midland, Michigan Senior Portrait Photographer | Eve Tuft Photography

Tag: Nature

Freelensed Rose Garden

The rose garden at Dow Gardens is one of my favorite places to take pictures in the whole city of Midland. It’s therapeutic for me to do so. The light there is the best just as the sun is setting, and there is always such an array of roses just waiting for me to capture them. On this particular day I was feeling a bit on edge and moody, so it was especially soothing for me to go there and just breathe.

The sun wasn’t out when we were there, but I think that it was better that way. Like, my mood matched up with the day’s mood, and even the way I edited the pictures were more moody than I usually do. Since the sun wasn’t out and it was overcast, I knew that I wanted to freelens. Freelensing is when you take the lens off of the camera body and shoot through it like that with the lens in your hand. You slightly tilt the lens to place the small slice of focus at different points, all while holding it as closely to the sensor as possible. Rose gardens are the perfect subject to freelens.

It’s funny because while I was there taking pictures, I remembered that I had gone there last year at almost the exact same time and did the same thing. Maybe the end of August calls for some moodiness. Maybe it’s because summer is coming to an end, and the longer days are quickly waning. Perhaps I should make this an annual tradition. 🙂 At any rate, it was good for my soul, and I’m so glad I can count on that rose garden to brighten my day, even if it’s only figuratively.

August 29, 2018
Golden Hour at the Chippewa Nature Center | Midland, Michigan

It’s no secret that one of my favorite places here in Midland is the Chippewa Nature Center. It is the beauties of nature at its finest, particularly at golden hour. My husband and I love to make Sundays family days, so oftentimes in the afternoon or evenings when the weather is nice, we’ll go for a walk together. Sometimes it’s just around our neighborhood, but more often than not it’s down by the Tridge or at the CNC. We haven’t made it out there much this year so far, so yesterday evening we proposed to take a walk there together. It has been SUCH a hot weekend, but it didn’t seem so bad when we were there in the shade of all those trees. In fact, the weather even seemed pleasant.

One of the reasons why we love going there is because the kids LOVE exploring all the trails, picking all the flowers, and throwing rocks in all the ponds of water. And I love taking pictures of them doing so. 😉 I also adore taking pictures in that gorgeous light at the end of a summer’s evening during golden hour. The way the light is softly filtered at the end of the day seriously makes me swoon.

We started on our normal path, but we accidentally took a wrong turn halfway through, so we ended up walking about twice as long as we intended. We had some tired kiddos by the end of the walk! Haha, a little exercise doesn’t hurt anybody, right? Besides, they had walked so far that evening, that by the time we got home they were good and tired and ready for bed. I’m certainly not going to complain about that. 😉

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July 2, 2018
Into the Woods

The woods and forest at the Chippewa Nature Center make my heart sing. I love being there. I love going on walks with my family there. And of course, I love taking pictures there. 🙂 We can’t forget that now, can we? One of the things love about it is that although we’ve been there so many times, we seem to always discover a new path or trail we’ve not been on before. We’ve even gotten lost there once, and my poor children had to walk much farther than we had intended to get back to the car. Hey, it’s OK! We’re helping them build character!

On this particular day it was warm and humid, but it wasn’t too hot to be uncomfortable. We were traipsing around for at least an hour, probably closer to an hour and a half. My kids LOVE going on the trails in the woods, and they love running up and down the hills and going around corners to discover what new things they can.

This little sweetie is Tumpkins. She’s such a cutie, and I love her vivacious attitude, her hugs and kisses, and her spunk. She’s also pretty crazy! There’s something about taking pictures of my children running away into the distance that tugs at my heart just a bit. It’s like their childhood is fleeting, and this moment is going to fade into the distance. I’m so glad we spend as much time together as we do. Although I’m sure I’ll have regrets later in life, one of them will not be how much time I spent with my family. They get all my free time. They’re what I’ve been given time for.

June 25, 2018
Mother’s Day Roses

Another Mother’s Day has come and gone. And the thing I look forward to the most about it are the flowers I always get. My husband has always been great about getting me flowers for Mother’s Day. I used to love them only for the fact that I love flowers. Especially roses and tulips. But for the past number of years, the biggest reason why I love getting flowers is because it gives me something beautiful to photograph.

Don’t get me wrong! I LOVE taking pictures of my kids! I’m so happy that I have this talent to capture our family life. BUT! Sometimes my children are less than thrilled about me sticking the camera in their faces. They appease me, but then they’re done. Haha. Flowers, on the other hand, don’t have an opinion! I can put them wherever I want, angle them just so, wait an hour and a half if I want, and then, when I come back to them, they’re still right where I left them. Granted, of course, they’re out of reach of little fingers. 😉

My husband knows that I love roses the most, so it usually isn’t a surprise when he comes home with roses on Mother’s Day. The surprise is finding out which color(s) he decided to buy! Yellow was this year’s color. I love the yellow. Happy, sweet, fun. I hope you seeing these almost as much as I enjoyed taking them. <3

May 20, 2018
Midland in Bloom

When everything around you is in bloom, you can’t but feel the anticipation of something beautiful about to happen. That’s what spring does every year for me. It’s like all winter long we’ve been waiting. And waiting. And WAITING. And then FINALLY it’s spring, and it’s like the whole earth feels the need to celebrate its long-time coming. I also LOVE the longer days that come with the beginning of spring and that golden hour is now even later. It’s like the whole world is just starting to wake up from a deep sleep.

Once the flowers around town start to bloom, I feel like my photography does as well. As though the fire to shoot has been silenced from the cold. I ache to get outside again, feel the warmth of the sun, and get my photography on. And so I do. 😀

On this afternoon at Dow Gardens, the husband, kids and I had ourselves a great time. We had to leave to get the kids in bed earlier than I wanted to, so I just BARELY missed golden hour, but I had so much fun shooting outside in beautiful light that it really didn’t matter. I loved shooting the blossoms on trees, getting daffodils in beautiful, warm light, and capturing the first blooms of tulips. They really are my favorite flower.

May 18, 2018