Yew berries sidelit by afternoon sun. Camera/lens: Nikon D300 with 105 mm non-digital lens. Exposure: Aperture priority set at ƒ40; resulting exposure 1/4 sec; exposure bias - 0.67 stops. Date/time: 19/10/09; 14:32:08. Location: Garden at home at Oradour Fanais, in the Charente, France.
A similar shot of Viburnum Opulus berries can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/lorre_01/8137652639
Tags: Yew berries red green Christmas catchycolors+red ALittleBeauty ABigFave
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This shot of a dahlia was taken in natural light conditions. The flower was picked and stood in a glass of water indoors and lit by window light. The flower itself and one of the leaves have been caught in the strongly directional light from the right and behind, whilst the stem, though just visible, is in the shadow of the flower, giving a contrasty light-and-shade image. Black backdrop used for background. There was no tripod available so I used an ironing board to steady the camera for this 1/15 sec exposure. To view large click here
Nikon D300; 105 mm non-digital Nikkor lens. Exposure: Aperture priority set at ƒ10; shutter speed 1/15 sec.; Exposure bias: -0.67 (2/3 of a stop underexposed to prevent burn-out on the upper petals (unadjusted exposure would have made the stem more distinct but simultaneously overexposed the flower); Date/time/place:11 Oct 2009; 10:51:19; Hoyland, Barnsley, South Yorkshire (on a brief visit to England)
Tags: Flowers pink lemon Dahlia
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Date/time: 04/03/08; 15:12;17; Camera/lens: Nikon D300 with non-digital 105 mm lens; Exposure: Aperture priority set at ƒ32 for maximum DoF to pick out detail in this close-up shot and intentionally counteract bokeh; The result of this aperture (a 3 second exposure) meant that a tripod was essential! Camera position chosen to exploit translucence of trumpet as light filters through it from top-left.
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Tags: Daffodil Spring England Yorkshire flower bloom macro close-up yellow platinumphoto Zen`sational World cRAzY aBoUT naTuRE ArtofImages AWESOME SHOTS Above All the Rest and Simply the BEST I'd Rather Be Lucky Than Good-Invite *FLICKR's PRO PHOTOGRAPHERS* (POST 1 - AWARD 3) (Pool) *****MACROLICIOUS Capture*****NEW CONTEST !!!FLICKR Stars * ALL KINDS OF MACROS & CLOSE-UPS NATURE'S POT-of-GOLD Quality Pixels Excellent Flowers (Pool) Natural Excellence (Pool) *Platinum Photography *Invited Images Only* (Pool) * Natures Beauties~flowers, trees, gardens SecretEnchantedGardens SimplytheBest~Flowers * SENSATIONAL CREATIONS of EXCELLENCE DiamondClassPhotographer YOURBESTSHOT TheUnforgettablePictures SOE OvertheExcellence RubyPhotographer Capture The Finest infinestyle JustOneLook Flickr Stars Group CITRIT,Best of yours! World's Art Gallery SCREAM OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER DIGITAL CAMERA CLUB Dragon Gold Award Artistic and High Quality Macro Heavenly Captures OraclEX MandalaLight TheSuperbMasterpiece mywinners
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WHAT I'VE MISSED: 28 August 2009. After a lapse owing to changes in my personal life, I returned today to spend some time on my hobby of Natural History photography - and I was reminded of what it is that attracts me to it: quietness; distancing from hustle and bustle and concern with the external aspects of life; stillness; the feeling of peace and oneness with Nature; wonder at the intelligence at work in it; the feeling of being part of something much bigger, deeper than yourself.
FUNCTION OF THE TRIPOD. The processes involved in this kind of photography and their effect of slowing one down I find therapeutic. So I almost always use a tripod in such situations – the tripod reduces the speed of the process which then becomes much more than simply pointing and shooting. You have time to consider the light: direction, angle and strength; the best camera position; the lens-to-subject distance; the best aperture, shutter-speed and framing to achieve what you want. And you can think more clearly about all these variables when your camera is sitting there on the tripod. You can alter it's position for effect and it will 'stay put' while you attend to other things.
CREATING THE IMAGE - Though the image you want to achieve is already in your mind, the difficult task is to alter the variables to produce that potential image "in camera" – so although we often speak of "capturing" reality in a photo, it is in fact much more than simply "capturing" what is "out there" – Rather, it's a creative act - an act of 'creating" in camera the potential image that is already in your mind - an image which may be subtly different from the three dimensional reality in front of the lens because of the variables you have tweaked to mould it. It's the process you go though to achieve this that is slow, considered and measured, and that therefore allows you time to soak up and take what is there - the subtleties of the natural object in the relation to it's environment: shape, colour, texture and structure. The slow, methodical, thinking and physical processes relax - And after the 'click" of the shutter when you eventually see an image appear on the LCD screen that encapsulates just the effect you were trying to achieve, there's the release of having achieved it. There is a lengthy, leisurely process of thinking and adjusment that is going on, getting all the components into place as you gradually approach the task of materialising inside the camera the image that at first was merely in your mind's eye. I often discard several images of a subject "in camera" before obtaining the one or two that I eventually keep.
FACTUAL/TECHNICAL INFO: Though not scented, the flowers of Hibiscus can be visually quite stunning if you are fortunate enough to be able to photograph them in directional low-light conditions like these. Here the camera is positioned to take advantage of the strongly directional light coming from the right and slightly behind the flowers and thus catching the face of the flower on the right at an oblique angle and lighting the flower on the left from behind, partially filtering through its petals and highlighting the veined structure of both blooms and giving a degree of rim-lighting against the dark background provided by a backcloth to isolate the subject.
Nikon D300; Lens: 105mm Nikkor; The camera was set to record the image RAW and this was later converted to JPG format. For some reason some of the EXIF data was not embedded into the RAW image but I used an aperture of ƒ36 (minimum for this lens) to ensure as great a DoF as possible for this close-up shot and the exposure was consequently l-o-n-g, something like 2.5 to 3 secs. It was therefore necessary to use a tripod. Image cropped to square format on the computer. Date/Time/Location: 28/08/09; 11:47:59; Oradour Fanais, in the Charente, France. Click here to view LARGE On Black
A DEDICATION: I'm dedicating this, my first natural history shot for many weeks to a life-long pal, a friendship going back to school days, because it is his birthday today. So - HAPPY BIRTHDAY 'ADE' - taken specially today to wish you well, so have a great day and many happy returns!
Tags: Hibiscus Flowers Blue Summer Floral Sidelit Plants Pink CITRIT WORLDBEST NaturesFinest. BIB veined petals GoldStarAward POT-OF-GOLD TRAVELS of HOMER ODYSSEY Mama'sBloomers PeaceAward GoldenPictures GoldenGallery Awesome Blossoms ShutterBug b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l TheUnforgettablePictures platinumpeaceaward
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This beautiful flower spike could, unbelievably, have been very easily overlooked. Why? Because it was so very small that it needed a close-up/macro shot to reveal the beautiful structure, the downy buds, the grainy texture of the petals and the subtle combination of colours in the tiny florets. This is the top end of a flower spike that was about 10-12 cm in length, and each individual five-petalled floret was a lot less than a centimetre across. Not sure what the plant is called but suspect it is in the verbascum family though miniscule in flower compared with the more common wild verbascum. The leaves resembled those of dock. Small was definitely beautiful here! If anyone recognises the plant and can tell me its name I'd be very grateful. Best viewed large (Click here)
Camera: Nikon D300; Lens: 105 mm Nikor (non digital); Date/time: 09/09/09; 09:13:11; Exposure (EXIF information): Aperture priority set at ƒ40; shutter speed 1.0 sec.; Exposure bias: -1.00 stop; ISO setting: 200. Location: Oradour Fanais, in the Charente, France.
Tags: Flower(s) Spike Verbascum? Yellow Lemon pink
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