Spring Is Here

After several days in a row with temperatures way above normal, Mother Nature got a huge push to get plants going. It seemed like the daffodils came up in just a few days, everything greened up, and the flowering trees came into bloom. It's a beautiful time of year when the Winter greys disappear.

I made a trip over to Michele's garden -- my first visit in the Spring. It was a beautiful, sunny day. There were several types of daffodils in bloom. One is shown at right -- taking using a fill flash to get some light into the center of the flower. A fill flash also creates some shadows that give a bit of depth to the straight on view.

There were lots of flowering trees to look at too. The photo below shows a close-up of one of the blossoms.



This is one of my favorite photos of tree blossoms.


The subjects I found most interesting were the fiddlehead ferns that were just starting to emerge from the ground. Michele pointed them out -- otherwise I would have missed them. The photo at right shows them just as they stalks start to come out. When they get up a few inches, you can see a well developed structure even though they are only about the size of a $0.25 piece. The first photo below shows a macro view at an early stage. As they get a bit higher, a kind of red fuzz appears on the stalks and the head. The second photo below shows the fuzzy texture. In both cases I used a fill flash on the side away from the direct sun to get rid of the dark shadow.





You can see all the photos from my visit in a Flickr set here.

Red and Yellow

Michele has several knockout rose beds in her garden. They give a lot of red color to the garden that really stands out in the Fall. The photo at right, a fisheye view, gives an idea of how many flowers were in bloom a couple weeks ago. That was taken using the natural light and shade on the plants. There are some insects on the flowers, but nothing like those found on the sedum flowers.

The first photo below is a close up of one of the rose blossom taken using a few flashes to get a good depth of field. I like the soft texture of the rose petals.

The second photo below is of a plant that gives some more yellow color to the garden. It is one cluster of flowers on a Lantana. The cluster is about the size of a quarter and they branch off of some medium length stalks. I was intrigued by how the little rectangles unfurl into trumpet shaped flowers.

Chrysanthemum Bonanza

When I was visiting Michele's garden a couple weeks ago, she had several pots of chrysanthemums that were bursting with color. The photo at right shows one of the pots on her porch, taken in the morning sun with a fisheye lens. They really add color to the garden.

The first photo below is a close-up of one of the blossoms. The early morning light gives the petals an almost golden color. After spending some time taken insect pictures, I discovered another pot in the back garden. By that time it was later in the morning and as the sun got a bit higher the flowers lost a bit of that gold hue. In the background shade you can see some purple flowers that are from a pot of asters.

Finally, the third photo below is a set of photos taken from one mum pot, on the same day, that shows how the flower opens up. I wonder what time span this represents if it were a single flower. I was intrigued by how the color changes as the flower opens up. The photos show the actual colors as best I can. Go here to see a larger version on black.

Asters

Michele has a beautiful pot of asters near her front porch. Of course a purple flower is always going to catch my eye. I had no idea what they were -- just that they sort of looked like a daisy. As she explained, the aster is a member of the daisy family (Compositae). Not only is it fun to try some different photo techniques to get some shots of her garden, I learn some botany and entomology in the process.

The flowers looked fantastic in the morning sun. Surprisingly, the asters didn't get much attention from the bees and butterflies. The photo to the right, of the whole plant and pot, was taken using my fisheye lens. The close-ups below were taken with a macro lens using only the natural sunlight.

Toad Lily Blossoms

One of my favorite Fall flowers in Michele's garden is the toad lily. It has a unique shape and a hint of purple (which is always a plus). It is a small blossom that is just a bit bigger than a quarter. The particular plant I found that had the nicest flowers was in partial shade. The photo to the right is taken using the natural light that was available. For the two photos below I used a couple of flashes to add to the natural light. That let me use a much smaller aperature that gives a larger depth of field so more of the blossom is in focus. The main trade off is you lose the background. Which do you prefer -- the natural light or the flash? Click on any photo to go to Flickr to see a larger version (click all sizes above the photo in Flickr).

Bees, Bees, and More Bees

Yesterday I finally made another trip over to visit Michele's garden. There is still a lot going on this time of year. Just like last year, the remaining bees and butterflies are visiting the sedum blossoms and other flowers in her garden to get the last bits of nectar for the season. I got a relatively early start and it was fairly cool overnight. I think that made the bees a little lethargic and that helped me get set up for photos.

There were several different species roaming over the plants. I focussed on the larger bees as they were moving more slowly. This bee (maybe a carpenter bee?) was the same species I saw last year. The green pattern in the eyes and the yellow mark on the front of the head is pretty distinctive.



Here is a close-up of the head. I was using a bare flash for fill so you can see some glare on the eyes. Reflected light next time.



Below is another type of bee I saw. In this photo you can see the additional 3 eyes on the forehead. I used a fill flash on this macro as the plant was in partial shade. Click here to see a larger version of the photo below. I think this is my favorite of the bee macros.



Here is a side view of the same bee.



You can see a bunch of bee photos in the Flickr set here.

Capture Cincinnati Mini-Contest

The Capture Cincinnati photo contest is coming to an end quickly. During the voting, the organizers have tossed in some mini-contests where they ask contributors to submit photos on specific topics. Rather than having open voting on the entries, the organizers judge the entries and select their favorites.

A couple weeks ago they called for photos related to Fall, to Winter, and to Spring. I submitted a few of my photos. A couple days ago they announced their favorites. Check out the top photo in the Fall category -- click here. That photo looks familiar! I'm psyched!

Organic Water Macros

The Macro Mondays group theme this past Monday was "organic water." They had done water before, so the organic clause was attached to eliminate any potable water -- or water you would typically drink.

One thought I had was a teardrop. Dianne kindly served as a model once again and supplied an eye. I put on a couple drops of water as a fake tear. She gave her best sad eye look. She was dealing with allergies and sneezing a lot so her eye is a little red and watery. That added to the effect. I bounced the flash off a white reflector in front of her face for the main light. A grazing flash from the left created a little shadow across the face.



The next shot was a shrub outside our place that has very waxy leaves. The rainwater beads up nicely on them. Since we didn't have any rain this weekend (contrary to the weather people that said we'd have showers) I had to use a spray bottle to mist the leaves. I chose a fairly bright flash and used a small aperture to make the background dark even though it was shot in the middle of a sunny day. After looking at some of the other photos in the pool, I think I would do it differently in the future. A grazing flash from above enhances the drops on the leaves.



As a final shot, on a whim I misted a spider web on some type of evergreen shrub near our place. The web suspended the drops nicely. I took the shot and then later noticed when processing it that all the big drops acted like little magnifying glasses and you can see the reflection of the shrub in each drop. It looks pretty cool, but I didn't think the photo was that great from a composition standpoint. I was pleasantly surprised to see this made it to #4 at one point on the Flickr Explore list of the top 500 photos of that day. You can see a larger version by clicking here.

Obsession, Passion, and Addiction

That was the theme this week in the Macro Mondays group on Flickr. Dianne came to mind immediately. I worked that into a triptych shown below. I have to work on the eye photo technique, as there is quite the lighting reflection in the eye. I really like the hand hold macro.



For the other shot I went with wine corks to fit the theme. I used a combination of synthetic and cork, red wine stained and not. I played around with a few different arrangements before I came up with a composition I liked. The lighting also took some time to figure out. The main light was a flash with a grid (to diffuse the light a bit) from high left. To break up the shadow from that light, I used a softbox on the left. That still left some harsh shadows and the undersides were dark. I placed the corks on a white, opaque sheet of craft plastic supported on a piece of glass raised above the table. Underneath I placed a mirror on the table and bounced a flash off the mirror to illuminate the corks from the bottom. It makes the support whiter, lightens the shadows even more, and illuminates the undersides of the corks. I love that trick.

Film Noir Macros

This past Monday the theme in the Macro Mondays group in Flickr was "film noir." I've been watching a lot of film noir in the past year, so I was excited for the theme. Just earlier this week I watched a film noir classic In a Lonely Place with Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame. I thought it was a very good, but tense film. I'm biased though as I'm a big Bogart fan due to many of his film noir efforts like Dark Passage, High Sierra, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, etc. and I've always liked Gloria Grahame. She played Violet in It's a Wonderful Life, but I liked her best in the film noir classic The Big Heat. I'm not a huge Glenn Ford fan, but The Big Heat is a great film and Gloria gives a solid performance.

Although I was familiar with the style, I wasn't sure how to do that in a macro. The film noir look is also a very different style of photography than I'm used to shooting so it was a challenge to get the right gritty, dark mood. I was happy with the outcome and the first shot made Flickr's Explore.

For my first shot I wanted to capture a murder scene and decided to use a bloody knife at the main subject. I used a piece of tapestry left over from this project as my background. I used concentrated cherry juice as my blood and used a stick to spatter some "blood" on the cloth. It took quite a bit to get a gruesome murder scene look. I also put some on the knife blade and on the handle where the bloody glove would have been holding it. To make the blood stand out in black & white, I used a green filter to enhance the red color (or darken it in b&w). I used a snoot on the flash to localize the light and did some post-processing to even enhance the vignette effect. Here is the result.



For my second shot, I tried to create a photo of items on Sam Spade's desk under light shining through the window from a streetlight or the moon. I wanted to create a shadow effect from the window pane or writing on the window. I was stymied until I discussed it with Dianne and she quickly suggested printing what I wanted on a transparency and then hold that above and shine a light through to create a shadow. She's full of great ideas! So what would Sam have on his desk? Probably a revolver, some cigarettes (which I had to buy), and matches. I used a flashlight with a tight beam to light the scene through the transparency of a skylight window pane. This is borderline macro -- maybe an up close still life. Again I did a little post-processing to enhance the vignette. Here is the result.

Strawberry Memories

Growing up, one sign of late Spring or early Summer for me was the first ripe, native strawberries appearing. My aunt had a large strawberry patch and she would make the absolute best strawberry jam on the face of the planet -- Brenda knows what I mean. Nothing like fresh strawberry jam on one of her homemade buns. Yum!

The fever for the opening of strawberry season carried over into graduate school. For at least a couple years a group of us went to a local strawberry farm and picked a boat load of strawberries. We cleaned them up and prepared them for a strawberry get together. We made everything strawberry for the Chemistry folks -- strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream, strawberry daiquiris, etc.

I like strawberry flavors year 'round, but the sight of the first fresh strawberries still makes my mouth water. I picked up some at the market (shown in the photo) and made some strawberry shortcake last week. They weren't local, but they looked great and I couldn't wait. I love The Fresh Market in Kenwood.

Paint Macro Project

This week the Macro Mondays group theme was paint. A pretty wide open topic that was interpreted many different ways. Carla very kindly provided several bottles of nail polish to use as one subject. I like the sparkles in the first photo below of the nail polish brush. In the second shot, my expert finger model Dianne helped me get a shot of her brushing on some nail polish. I used a slow shutter speed and a rear sync for the flash to capture the idea of movement. The flash fires just before the shutter closes so the brush is most clear at the end of the stroke. From the background light you can see a more faint image of the brush initially and as it moves. The final photo is some acrylic paint on a white piece of paper. Surprisingly, this made Flickr's Explore.

Spring Trees

Spring is in full swing here. I haven't captured many of the Spring flowers this year. After work today, I took a few minutes to take some photos of the flowering trees around our place. Some of them are below, but there are more in my Flickr set that you can see here.