Rodger Whitlock wrote:
>
> Flower photography is damned difficult!
>
> My other hobby (my *real* hobby) is gardening.
Mine too Rodger! and as a matter of fact, it's what bought me into the real world of
serious
photography. (macro lenses, ring flash, knowledge through books on photography, etc.)
> My garden is a very
> complex one, and the scenes in it change constantly as different
> plants come into and go out of flower. Every so often, just as with
> photography, I luck onto something really nice looking. This spring,
> for example, _Papaver_orientale_ 'Show Girl' was in flower near --
> but not too near -- a nice deep, violet-tinged blue
> _Iris_xiphioides_. The poppy is a bright, clear, warm pink, almost a
> flamingo pink. Against the background matrix of plain ol' green
> plants, the two made a very satisfying colour combination, and a few
> friends got invited over to share the pleasure.
>
> But I did not even try to photographate the scene.
Hmm. I too, have lots of exotic flowers in my gardens: orchids (mainly in the
greenhouse, but they
travel to remote spots on the "estate" in the fall and spring) One of my favorite
arrivals via the
postman is the seed catalog, especially the ones who strive to produce new varieties
each year;
Thompson and Morgan come to mind) and I photograph each and every one. I plant
grouping purposely to
achieve a good group shot. You really are missing the "record" of the fleeting event
if you aren't
taking pictures, in my view. I enjoy very much looking through the albums of blooms
from years past.
And you do have an advantage over me. Here in South Louisiana, we are very limited in
choices of
flowers (especially orchids). You probably could grow ten times the varieties we are
able to make
happy down here. A combination of: searing summer heat that only lets up about 4
months a year,
stifling humidity, and especially the heat that won't go away even at night. (during
the summer
months, it rarely gets below 76�F at night.
>
>
> Why? Because the eye is so selective in what it sees, whereas the
> camera is so unselective. The business of the background would
> overwhelm the two plants whose color combination was so pleasing.
Not so! A selection of a wide open aperture, and perhaps a combination of flash,
shutter speed, and
aperture can render the background pleasingly obscure.
> I
> considered for some time if there was any camera angle that would
> capture the essence of the planting, and concluded not.
>
> I considered taking a shot at an angle so as to bring the two plants
> closer together on film, but concluded that to have both of them in
> reasonable focus, I would end up with the uninteresting background
> stuff also in focus.
I have committed the grave sin of posing the blooms closer together to correct just
such an
offensive circumstance.
>
>
> Perhaps the rather short focal length of the eye, compared to a
> camera lens, also militated against this.
>
> But even taking a photograph of a single flower is very difficult, if
> one wishes to capture the essence of the bloom.
>
> Practice, practice, practice, I suppose is the key.
Ah, there you have it. And, I might add, good macro lenses. I began my orchid
photography career
with a Pentax P30t and a set of close up filters. Worked good on "flat field" flowers
like daisies,
but when I tried to capture the long throated Morning Glory (heavenly blue, still my
absolute
favorite, most admired flower I've ever witnessed come alive in my garden) it was
not doable. I
then purchased a 50mm f4 supertak macro, complete with internal fungus and a spotmatic
camera that
had long ago seen its best days and was amazed at the difference.
Today, I use a Vivitar Series 1 macro, 90mm supposedly the best ever made (though I'm
hard pressed
to tell the difference when I compared it to another lens I used to have, the Pentax
100mm f4 SMC.)
And I have a real cool Dx8r TTL ringflash that I sometimes use, though I prefer
natural lighting
now.
But to conclude, I feel very compelled to write to a fellow gardener and relate my
immense
satisfaction I gather by recording all of those wonderful blooms, year after year. And
I don't
photograph them for anyone else but me. I have been a member of this group for about 2
years now,
and I almost always submit a picture for the gallery. But only once, maybe have I
published one of
my flowers. I think for me, flower gardening is a personal, quiet, selfish activity I
carry on in
blissful isolation.
>
> --
> Rodger Whitlock
> Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
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