Apple Blossoms

Beautiful Spring weather has finally arrived to the New York Capital District! On this beautiful weekend day, I spent some time walking our apple trees and photographing the blossoms with the Canon 7D Mark II and the EF 100-400 F/4.5-5.6L lens; yes I was also trying to capture a few birds that afternoon.

We have about ten apple trees consisting of Honeycrisp and Norther Spey varieties. Last Fall I pruned these 9 year-old dwarf and semi-dwarf trees back quite a bit to open them up and let more air into the trees. I am hoping for a better fruit crop in 2020. If these blossoms are an indication, we are well on our way.

Color photos were processed in Adobe Lightroom and the black and white photos were processed in Adobe Photoshop with Nik Silver Efex Pro plug-in applying a Fuji ACROS filter and select Dodge & Burn.

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Apple blossoms in Spring

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Apple blossoms in black and white

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Apple blossoms in Spring

Who's ready for Fall?

Nothing says Fall is approaching like ripening apples on a tree.

Four years ago we planted a dozen apple trees and a few peach trees. The apple trees consisted of a mix of Honeycrisp and Northern Spy varietals. Honeycrisp is our favorite snacking apple and Northern Spy is our favorite pie apple. This season is the first year we have a crop of apples worthy of consumption. 

The image above is of a Honeycrisp apple in early August about 4 inches in diameter and has approximately four weeks remaining to be picked...if we can keep the kids away that long! The apple was photographed with the Canon EF 100-400MM F/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens and slightly cropped in Adobe Lightroom.

Have a great day!

Apple Blossom

After the long cold winter, I was concerned we would not have any apple or peach blossoms this year. The apple trees seemed to fare well, but no sign of peach blossoms to date...oh well.

Have a great day!