Menu
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Feature
    • Arts
    • Astrology
    • Business
    • Community
    • Employment
    • Event Stories
    • From the Pioneer
    • Government
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Non Profit News
    • Obituary
    • Public Safety
    • Podcast Interview Articles
    • Pioneer Pulse Podcast: Politics, Palette, and Planet – the Playlist
  • Weather
  • Guest Column
    • Perspectives
    • Don Backman Photos
    • Ardent Gourmet
    • Kitchen Maven
    • I’ve been thinking
    • Jim Heffernan
    • The Littoral Life
    • Neal Lemery
    • View From Here
    • Virginia Carrell Prowell
    • Words of Wisdom
  • Things to do
    • Calendar
    • Tillamook County Parks
    • Tillamook County Hikes
    • Whale Watching
    • Tillamook County Library
    • SOS Community Calendar
  • About
    • Contribute
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Opt-out preferences
  • Post Submission Test
  • Search...
Menu

Backman’s Blooms: Photographer Pivots during Pandemic to Find Bright Spots of Color in Neighbor’s Yards

Posted on March 30, 2021March 30, 2021 by Editor

EDITOR’S NOTE:  What’s a photographer to do when access to your “usual” subjects is restricted?  You start shooting in your own backyard, and your neighbor’s backyards.  That’s exactly what Pioneer photographer Don Backman did last year when the pandemic closures set in.  And he discovered another wonderful world.  We will “revisit” Backman’s Blooms with a daily flower photo (or two.)  So, we’ll watch our community blossom as we move through the seasons. We will also include some information about “what’s blooming?” and encourage our readers to share their photos of seasonal flowers.  The bursting blooms this year even more represent the transformation and rebirth of Spring!  Enjoy!

By Don Backman

Photos by Don Backman

Last year, when schools closed and after the Spring Break fiasco which led to so much being closed down here on the coast, I was at a loss for places to take photos. My favorite style is some sort of landscape and sunsets. However, Barview park and jetty accesses were closed, and pretty much all beach access was closed, too.

Being stuck to the local area, I decided to get out my macro lens and really learn how to shoot flowers where they were growing. Many professional flower photos are taken indoors, where there is no wind, and the lighting and backdrops can be carefully arranged. I wanted to go to where they were growing, use the existing light, and take photos there.  This meant contending with crowded backgrounds, other plants nearby, inconsistent light, and flowers moving in the breeze.  Even the gentlest breeze is problematic for macro photographers due to the narrow plane of focus and depth of field.   Not all these photos are taken with the macro lens, but the majority are.

Last spring, in cities around the world (and where they were allowed to based on their countries quarantine rules), photographers whose businesses were shut down often went down their streets offering to take a professional outdoor photo of their neighbors, from a distance, of course, and then emailing copies to those neighbors, for free, as part of their COVID Quarantine Projects. That didn’t seem to be workable in my area, so, I started my own COVID Spring Project, which involved posting a photo a day just to lighten up peoples day.

This grew, and eventually I was visiting neighbors lawns and flower gardens to find subjects. Remarkably, everyone gave their permission. These photos went to my personal Facebook and Flickr pages. As a way of remembering the Spring, what we all went though, and the sacrifices people are still making, sharing these photos again seems like a good way to brighten up Facebook feeds. So, this spring I am posting many of those images, interspersed with images from this year, and sharing them across all of Tillamook County through the Tillamook County Pioneer.

Hopefully, you will find some that you enjoy.

For more of Don’s photos – see his website www.donbackmanphoto.com.

Featured Video

Slide Contribute SUBSCRIBE

Tillamook Weather

Tides

Tillamook County Pioneer Podcast Series

Tillamook Church Search

Cloverdale Baptist Church
Nestucca Valley Presbyterian
Tillamook Ecumenical Service

Archives

  • Home
  • EULA Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Opt-out preferences
  • Search...
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
Linkedin
Catherine

Recent Posts

  • LOCAL VFW POST RAISES $1,500, GETS MATCHING GRANT - $3,000 FOR LOCAL FOOD ORGANIZATIONS

    May 20, 2025
  • OREGON DEPT. OF FISH & WILDLIFE: More spring Chinook fishing days on Columbia River mainstem as run expected to come in above forecast 

    May 20, 2025
  • Check out AWARD-WINNING incredible “Coastal Futures” project on display at Rockaway Beach Library

    May 20, 2025
©2025 | Theme by SuperbThemes

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}