Old fools learning new tricks

Over the past year Sue discovered the wonders of Monty Don. He inspired her to try growing dahlias from seeds. She had never tried dahlias before, but she carefully nurtured a few (nine, I think) through the winter with heating pads, sunlamps, and whispered words of encouragement. She tentatively set them out in small pots in the spring, "potting them on" as they grew. Behold! Some of them have produced spectacular flowers, and this glorious dancer is my favorite because of the wild movement of her petals as she ages. So that's one of Sue's new tricks, dahlias.

The new trick I'm practicing during our current heat wave is (a) flower photography, and (b) Capture One Express as a possible alternative to Lightroom. A few months ago I had a crisis with Lightroom and ended up having to pay Adobe for a year of Lightroom Classic and Photoshop (which I don't want and refused to download even though I've paid for it). I want to become independent of Adobe before the year is up. GIMP and Affinity were recommended by several Blippers, as well as ON1, but I found I could get Capture One Express for free, so I'm giving it a try. Professional review comparing the two is here. I used it for this photograph of Sue's dahlia, although I realize that if I knew how to STACK, and if I stacked images on Photoshop, it would be much better. I haven't yet decided. Extra in color.