Ah, once again the trees were tricked into budding, only to be frozen overnight by the cold and windy weather. Here is a small collection of photos from last week, when the red bud tree in my backyard began to grow. Don't the pink buds make a beautiful bokeh? ♥

For these photos I experimented with free lensing, or lens whacking. For anyone who may not know, lens whacking is a photography technique where the lens is detached from the body of the camera and tilted form side to side to create a soft focus. It's a cheap alternative to expensive tilt-shift lenses that give very similar effects. I love the way free lensed photos look. I really want to practice more with this technique. :)