Most of us when we travel and are touring do not have the luxury of bringing a tripod or time to change our camera settings for the tricky lighting conditions. I found when in indoors the best way to capture lit up scenes is with my cell phone. It seems to work far better than my mirrorless camera. These photographs were taken in Crystal Onyx Cave in Cave City, KY. Some of the most beautiful formations I have ever seen.
One can’t control the change in weather, but one can control the shoot! The day this photograph was taken started out sunny, warm with no breeze. Quickly it turned incredibly windy. I was all set to pack it in when I decided to just go with it! Knowing that the odds were very slim of capturing a completely sharp image, or any decent image for that matter. I set the shutter speed to 1/320 sec. to compensate for the flower’s movement by the wind. Then I watched the flower petals rise and sway, picked a focal point, and had some fun!
Recently my photography focus has been on shooting flowers and creatively altering them. I discovered a very fun program called Topaz Studio 2. Thought I would share. It allows you to use a variety of tools to artistically create with presets, filters, and textures. Here are a couple of samples of the first two images I edited in the program. It also works as a plugin for Luminar, Photoshop, and Photoshop Elements.
We have this fountain that lights up on our patio. So last night around dusk I decided to try my Sol 45 Lensbaby lens on my Sony a6000. So far I have only used it for flower photography. The lens faired pretty well under the light conditions and was able to capture the bubbles while keeping the water streams smooth.
f/32; 1/15 sec.; ISO-100; 42mm
This photo was taken in San Francisco down by the pier. The reflections in the water were perfect that day to try some camera movement shots.
f/5.6; 1/100 sec; ISO-800; 60mm
The Chicago Botanic Gardens offered an abstract photography class so I decided to enroll. Discovered that the best take away from this class was it pushed me to think outside the “box”. The above photo is a flower placed on a tree trunk mushroom ledge. With a little camera movement when the shot was taken, this was the result.
