The Devil is in the Details

Death Valley's salt pan is about 5 miles wide, and stretches for more than 40 miles across the valley floor. At it lowest point, the Badwater salt flats are 282 feet below sea level. It's a fantastic place - and I love the details.

These little crystals measure just a few millimeters each. I took the shot with a 180mm macro lens on a 1.6 crop factor camera. The sun was behind Telescope Peak, so the valley floor was in shade. Soft, even light lets the details stand out without heavy shadows and harsh, blown highlights.

A macro lens can be difficult to get used to. Depth of field is extremely narrow as you get close to your subject, so look for flat surfaces if you want your entire composition in focus. You can also use that narrow depth to blur our unwanted detail in the background.
This shot was taken with the same lens on the same camera. Notice the blurred background. The blurring removes distraction - the rocky background would do nothing for the image. I took the shot just a few minutes before sunset as the last light gave it a soft, golden glow.

I've been to Death Valley several times, and every time, I find something new to photograph.

Back in the States

Sorry folks! I would have loved to update my blog regularly during our stay in Canada, but I had very little access to the internet. And I was having entirely too much fun. This was, without question, one of our best trips ever. The landscapes were gorgeous, the skies were stunning, and the company was great fun. I have hundreds of images to work through, and I'm thoroughly looking forward to processing them. I hope you'll all be patient with me! :)This is a shot of Anemone occidentalis - better known as "Tow-headed Baby" or "Western Anemone" - from Sunshine Meadows in Banff National Park. (Forgive me... I love those fantastic Latin names. I have to admit, though - I look them all up. I don't have a clue what this stuff is called off the top of my head. I guess I just like to pretend I'm smart.) Although the vistas were fantastic, the light was pretty harsh. I found myself noticing small details. The drops of dew on this flower remained only because the flower was in the shade - which meant I had perfect lighting for a macro shot. It takes time to get a shot like this one just right... the flower is blowing in the wind, and focusing for macros can be difficult.

I used my 180mm macro lens to get nice and tight - and made sure the setup was secure on my tripod before worrying about focus. Although standard auto-focus works well enough for wide angle shots, I needed the more precise live-view auto-focus function to make sure focus was spot-on for such a small subject. I had to wait for the wind to die down as well.

I bumped up the ISO to 400 for a faster shutter speed - and managed to get a nice, clean shot at 1/30 sec. I chose f/5.6 to get just enough depth of field... I wanted those droplets nice and sharp, but the background completely blurred.

I'll post lots more from this trip as soon as I can. Hang in there - I'm trying to get caught up! :)

Why I Love Dragon Flies...

This little guy was sitting on our house when I drove in this morning - and he flew over to the garden as I got out my camera. He waited patiently while I went inside to get a sheet of tissue paper to soften the harsh light. I was able to get nice and close and take my time with him. He didn't fly away until I'd spent a good ten minutes fine-tuning my shot.

Most tiny creatures aren't too interested in sitting still while you dig out your camera, make adjustments, and stick a fat macro lens into their living space. But dragon flies are fantastic. He's beautiful, isn't he?
So - what's your opinion? Do you prefer the color version or the black and white? Click on the photo for a larger view.

-Varina

Wildflowers

I spent more time shooting with my new 180mm macro than with my wide angle lens on this trip. The Smoky Mountains are beautiful, and we did get some nice evening and morning shots - but we spent some time during the day searching out wildflowers for macro photography. We were there at exactly the right time. Trillium grows everywhere at the lower altitudes - white, pink, and yellow varieties. We also found Columbine, Buttercups, Irises, and a thousand flowers I can't name. That's Wild Columbine (aquilegia canadensis) on the right and Yellow Trillium (trillium luyeum) below.
I could have been perfectly happy to spend another week wandering through the woods. :)

The trick with shooting flowers is to find an angle that allows you to capture the flower with green leaves in the background. Most of the time, the flowers are pretty close to the ground, so unless you are shooting from above, you need to get very close to the ground. Use a tripod that can go as low as possible, and lie down if you need to. Don't mind the bugs - as my mother always said... "They're more afraid of you than you are of them." (Of course, all bets are off if the bug has eight legs.)

A shallow depth of field blurs the background, and lets the flower stand out. The center of the flower should be in perfect focus - that's not as easy as you think. :) Shoot on a windless day if possible - or wait for a calm moment. You'll likely need to increase your ISO to reduce your shutter speed as much as possible... but remember that with a high ISO, you'll get more noise, so try not to go too high. Use a translucent filter (or a sheet) to soften direct light - or shoot in the shade for soft, even lighting. Overcast days are perfect for flower photography.

Try to keep distracting elements out of the frame - the eye goes to the brightest spot in an image, so make sure the brightest spot is your flower.

Jay and I will be presenting at the Akron Camera Club on Wednesday this week. We are putting the finishing touches on the presentation today. It should be fun!

Canon 180mm macro - and on the road again...

I had a great time testing my new lens the other day - it's a fantastic piece of glass, and I'm absolutely thrilled to have an excellent macro lens at last. Now, all I have to do is learn how to take a good macro shot.

I took this shot in my garden - it's a 1-inch tall Grape Hyacinth flower (Muscari Armeniacum). I chose the black and white treatment because, for me at least, the image is more about texture and repetition of form than it is about color.

You can see the detail in the 100% crop below - unsharpened. (Click on the image to see it at full size.) Beautiful. I like my new lens. :)

Today, we drove South to Virginia - we're headed for the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee. I'm looking forward to a few days in the mountains.