“In every walk in with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” John Muir
These photographs were taken with a Sony Mirrorless Camera in a Manual mode setting using an 18-55mm lens with an Opteka Achromatic 10x diopter attached to it.
Tag: Flower photography
Flower Photography – Narrowing the Focus
After taking a hiatus from photo shoots to learn and get comfortable with a new camera and lenses, I decided to take a new approach to my flower photography. My process has always been to find an interesting flower against a relatively good background and shoot it with a variety of lenses; wide, telephoto, macro, Lensbaby. My thinking is, a beautiful flower speaks for itself. Not too much thought or creativity goes into this process. Consequently, many of my flower photographs look like many of the photographs taken by everybody else.
For Easter someone brought me a Lily plant. Given spring is still fleeting here in Chicagoland (might snow this weekend), I decided to place the plant on a patio table and see what I could come up with creatively. Not too many ways to shoot a single lily. I kept focusing on what is the most interesting thing about this lily. This is what I came up with.
The photograph taken above was not cropped. The subject was shot as is. So this year, I’ve decided to challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone and photograph only a portion of every flower I shoot. I believe it is going to be “easier said than done”! But if nothing else, I am hoping to learn a lot, and it will definitely be interesting!!
The photo below was taken a few years ago.
Flowers – Photographing Indoors
Purchased flowers provide a great opportunity to creatively practice your photography skills during the winter months. Anything in your home can be used as background. To my surprise, the insect in the bottom photograph hitched a ride on one of the flowers I purchased!
Photography – Patio Flowers
All of my photo processing is done using a combination of Lightroom and Photoshop Elements. I also use the NIK Collection which is a plugin that can be used in both programs.
f/9; 1/15; ISO-100; 135mm; +0.3 steps
f/8; 1/6; ISO-400; 60mm
f/4.5; 1/80; ISO 400; 60mm
Comments are always welcome.
Creative Photography – Fun with Daisies
“You use a mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul”, George Bernard Shaw.
The Chicago Botanic Gardens offered an abstract photography class. I didn’t take the class because I am particularly fond of abstract photography, I enrolled because I had heard that the class material challenged students to look at the subject matter from a different perspective and creatively shoot.
The photograph above of two placed daisies was shot on a piece of mylar film.
f/7.1; 1/80; ISO 800.
Comments are always welcome.
Photography – Friendly Little Weeds
“Dandelions are just friendly little weeds who only want to be loved like flowers.” – Heather Babcock
Photography – Calla Lilies – Rain Drops
“Time itself comes in drops.” William James – f/8; 1/320; ISO 400.
The sturdy calla lily petals with their smooth and graceful curves are the perfect subject to shoot water drops. The water drops display a nice variety of shapes and sizes without dripping into the center of the flower.
These calla lilies where placed in a vase and set on my patio table two feet in front of an evergreen which made the background very easy to darken. f/8; 1/60; ISO 400.
Photography – Water Lily Reflection
Life is only a reflection of what we allow ourselves to see.
This photograph was taken at Butchart Gardens in Canada. It had been raining on and off that morning and the lighting was perfect for capturing reflections in the water.
Although the water lily was my initial focus, in my opinion, the most interesting subject in this image is the petals causing a ripple in the water. Photograph details: f/11; 1/60; ISO 200.
I discovered that shooting in Aperture Priority between f/8-f/11 at 1/60 or above and ISO 100- 400 produces the clearest, sharpest flower images.
Jan Williams 