Lungwort Oysterleaf? You've got to be Kidding

Have you had a chance to take some Spring photos yet this year?

We weren't planning to shoot this morning, but heavy humidity provided gorgeous filtered light... so we headed out to search for Wildflowers. These are Virginia Bluebells (mertensia virginica) - also called Virginia Cowslip, Roanoke Bells, or Lungwort Oysterleaf (I kid you not). They were blooming in abundance near the river at Bedford Reservation in the Cleveland Metroparks.

Jay's shot (below) was taken with a 17-40mm lens. The leaves are back-lit with soft, diffused lighting.

For this next shot, Jay used a wide aperture to produce a shallow depth-of-field. In doing so, he was able to single out the flowers in the foreground. The soft background gives a satisfying sense of place without too much clutter. The out-of-focus area provides very little detail, so the viewer's attention is automatically focused on the clean details that are in focus. You can use this technique to simplify a complicated scene.

I took some wide-angle photos too, but I spent a lot of time shooting with my 180mm macro lens. The tiny details were truly beautiful. This shot provides a bit more detail, so you can see what these pretty little flowers looked like up close. I always love soft colors and simple compositions - and I tend to like brighter images. Jay prefers slightly darker exposures - as you can see from him images above. In this case, I wanted a soft, bright, feel to the shot... but if you like brighter images, be careful to avoid blown highlights!

It rained during the night, and water droplets were still clinging to flowers and foliage. I had to take several shots to get a sharp image since it was a bit breezy out there. It's often difficult to get sharp macro images outdoors, but I think it's worth the effort. ;)

So - what do you think? Did we capture the essence of Spring with our impromptu photo-shoot? We met some other photographers on the trails - I guess we all had the same idea today!

Fields of Gold

Spring is just around the corner, so we thought we'd share this desktop wallpaper. Forget about heavy coats and fur-lined hats! It's time to start dreaming about warm sunny days, clear skies, and Spring flowers. How sweet it is!

This photograph was taken in the Jura region of France very early in the summer. The field is on private property located just outside the Cascades du Herisson natural recreation area. The overcast skies left the area in lovely, soft shade... notice the rich glow on the tops of the trees in the distance. Jay wanted to fill the frame with flowers as much as possible. He backed his rented Mercedes Benz (SWEET!) as close to the field of the flowers as he could, and then climbed onto the roof. We got some odd looks from drivers who saw us standing up there with our tripods and long lenses... but shooting from the roof of a vehicle gives you several feet of additional height. So... you do what you have to do. (Would you be willing to make a bit of a fool of yourself to get the shot you want?) ;)

We're waiting for the last of the snow to melt, here in Northern Ohio - and we hope that you have flowers and sunshine wherever you are.

1024 x 768

1280 x 1024

1280 x 800

1440 x 900

More free wallpaper is available at our Download Site.

These images are provided for personal use as computer wallpaper or backgrounds ONLY. Copyright belongs to the photographer, and photographs cannot be used, redistributed, or recreated in print or on the web or on any other medium without written permission from the photographer.

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! :)

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.

Details

I have a request for more information on that last shot, so I'll add it for those of you who are interested. The skies were heavily overcast - perfect for a detail shot like this one - however, these flowers stand on tall stalks that sway constantly in the wind. Although the wind was light, the flowers were moving too much to capture a decent image. I took two flowers indoors and used a tripod to make sure everything was steady. In this case, I chose to use natural light from the window, since I wanted that soft, even lighting.

I needed a wide aperture to get as much depth of field as possible, so I shot at f/32. That meant a longer shutter speed as well - 1.3 seconds. Without the wind, that wasn't a problem.

Processing a shot like this one is very easy because the range of light is very small. I'm not dealing with any of the complex lighting situations that landscape photography presents. I kept my contrast relatively low so the flower would remain soft. Also - I usually sharpen an image before printing or posting on the web, but in this case, I chose not to do that.

For the shot you see here, I let the petals of two flowers overlap. After following the same steps as for the last shot, I chose to convert to black and white to accentuate the detail in the contrasting petals.

Perfect Beauty

I had planned to process photos this morning, but when the sky is as beautiful as it was this morning, I simply can't stay at home. I ended up taking only a few shots at a local park before the sky quit putting on its show. I haven't processed this morning's shots yet - I want to finish my Northeast shots first. (I'm always behind!) I did take a few minutes to process an easy one, though. This flower has such a soft color to it.

I also took the time to put my latest Maine photo up on Fred Miranda and NPN. These are some of the best critique sites on the web.

And now - back to processing Maine and New Hampshire!

Good Morning

This morning, the light was so beautiful that I couldn't resist taking my camera out while my daughter and I waited for her school bus. She pointed out the prettiest flowers, and I took some shots. :)
I wish I had the Canon 100mm macro lens and an extension tube - but my little 50mm does a beautiful job despite its limited capabilities. One of these days I'll sell the one I have and upgrade... but I have a few other things on my list first.

In Bloom

It seems that everywhere we went this year, the flowers were putting on a show. These beautiful red ones were growing in soft light near Mono Lake in California. We were scouting the area so we'd be ready to shoot at sunset. I love our scouting trips - even though we aren't usually shooting at that time. We try to explore as much of a location as we can when the light is poor, so we'll be ready when the light is right. We drive down dirt roads or climb steep trails - just to see what we can find. Sometimes it's a grand vista - and sometimes it's a couple of pretty flowers. But there's always something. I love my job. :)