Travel Theme: Pink Lost Azaleas and Found Cherry Blossoms

As soon as I saw Ailsa’s post this morning announcing that this week’s theme was PINK, I knew exactly what I was going to post.   About a month ago, I bought a rather tired looking azalea in the sales bin at the grocery store.   With a little bit of water and sunlight, it blossomed into a glorious crown of pink within a few days.  It was the perfect subject for playing around with the 50mm lens I received as a holiday gift in December.  I hadn’t used it much and just wanted an opportunity to shoot lots of different angles to explore the limits of the lens.   And that is exactly what I did.

But that azalea plant is not what I am posting today.

I went to my Lightroom catalog and searched for the keyword “pink“.  Sure enough, there they were — about 50 unedited photos of that azalea.  I scrolled through them and decided which one I was going to choose:  a close up, with a large window in the background that not only allowed ample light into the frame but also — if you looked closely — showed just how cold and snowy it was on February 19th.  (And every other day between Jan 2 and Mar 16 here in India-snow-opolis.)  But, when I went to edit it, LR told me that it couldn’t find the original.  What?   I copy all of my photos to a hard drive when I import them.  I never move them, mostly because I’ve never bothered to figure out how to do that without messing up the LR catalog.

I clicked on the button to search.  Nothing came up on my external hard drive where I store my raw photos.   I switched to my hard drive.  A hit!   But, wait: that thumbnail didn’t look like the right photo.  I clicked on the thumbnail to take a look, but I apparently double-clicked.   LR immediately thought the photo was the one I was seeking.

What I got instead was a photo I shot last April in the New York Botanical Gardens.   I had spent a lovely afternoon walking through the gardens with my cousin and dear friend Catherine.   At various times, we stopped along our walk to sit on benches and read.  Other times, Catherine read and I wandered with my camera.   That day was bit chilly but very sunny.   All of the magnolias were in bloom as were the cherry trees.  The NYBG is a wonderful oasis in  the city and a place one shouldn’t miss if you’re in the area; it is well worth the trip to the Bronx.

How lucky was I that I accidentally replaced a photo of a pink flower with another photo of pink flowers?   I would still like to know how to get those azalea photos back into my catalog, but I fear that is a lost cause since I can’t find them on any of my drives.   Why is it that LR can give me a good thumbnail of that photo, but I can’t actually get to that photo?   If you know how, please enlighten me.

On the other hand, sometimes when things go wrong, you get them right despite your mistakes.  This is a perfect photo for this week’s Travel Theme.   If you’ve read this, you’ve read long enough.  Here is my photo for PINK.   Isn’t Spring grand?   Can’t wait to see pink and purple and all of the other wonderful Spring colors in my neck of the woods.  Should be in just a few weeks.

Cherry Blossoms, NY Botanical Gardens, NYC, April, 2013

Be sure to check out how others have interpreted Ailsa’s Weekly Travel Theme.   Here are a few examples.  You can find more by clicking on the link to Where’s My Backpack.
Traveling pink | Le Drake Noir
Travel Theme: Pink | That Montreal Girl
http://jobryantnz.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/travel-theme-pink/
Travel Theme : Pink | Retirement and beyond
Negril Sunset | Jaspa’s Journal
In the pink in Maine and Massachusetts | Tish Farrell
Travel Theme: Pink | Wind Against Current
Travel theme: Pink | Figments of a DuTchess
Travel theme:Pink | So where’s the snow?
The Pink Granite Coast | Foto Challenge
http://pathsunwritten.com/2014/03/21/travel-theme-pink/