While we were on vacation this month, we spent some time working on Aunt Susan’s patio garden. Some asked me how it came out so I thought I’d share the pictures during my Foto Friday. Aunt Susan lives on a small lake and her living room sliding glass door opens to see a view of the lake. She has two areas to have flowers in, as you see below.

She had chosen this old chest of drawers from a yard sale to use just for displaying flowers in her yard. She liked the vintage look of the dresser and had it sealed to protect from water. She likes that the paint has peeled back giving it that older look. My father-in-law, who my children adoringly call Poppop, drilled holes in the bottom of plastic boxes and placed them into the drawers. These serve as the pots for these tiny gardens.

For the hot dry climate in their city, we had to purchase plants that can resist the heat and withstand not being watered every day. The most ideal choice is cacti. However, Aunt Susan likes a nice cactus, she doesn’t prefer to have ALL cacti, so we found some various flowering succulents as well.

As you can see it was a bright sunny day and no flash was needed while taking these pictures. While these photos aren’t the kind I would submit to a contest, I do enjoy the colors seen in these snapshots. The brilliant blue of the lake is quite stunning. We did have some cloudy mornings while we were there and I noticed that those mornings would not have been good for photographs of the lake. The water reflects what is in the sky. When you are taking pictures with water in the shot, you’ll get a much better photograph is the sky is blue or even during a sunset when the colorful glow of the sun setting casts hues of pinks and oranges on the waters surface.

Although this shot wasn’t taken by me, we can thank sxc.hu for this free image. You can see how the reflection of the sunrise creates a beautiful reflection in the water. Sometimes photographers will rise early in the morning to catch a shot like this. The wise photographer will take hundreds of shots during 5 to 10 minutes of the sun rising or setting.

You’d be amazed at how different and unique each shot is. Even making a water reflection photo into black & white has a special attraction, as you see here. (photo features Lady Jess and Master Timothy) Do you have any photos of reflections from a body of water that you’d like to share? Please leave a link to a post from your own blog so we may enjoy the photos with you. :O)