The lady slippers are in full bloom around here.
On Saturday, Joan’s cousin Suzy called and said that they had one blooming right at the side of their driveway. I, of course, headed down there the first chance I got and took a bunch of photographs, playing with the lighting, angles, background, etc.
This morning, I was out back by our shed and noticed a lady slipper right between the shed and the outhouse (now used as a tool shed). Upon further exploration we discovered close to a dozen under the pines and hemlocks right behind the house. Of course, I spent another interval photographing them.
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Warning… photo-geek talk below coming next!
Both these photos were taken in full “Strobist-mode”. Both the camera and the flash were set to full manual mode. I set the aperture to get a nice out of focus background and the shutter speed to get the exposure I wanted on the background (under exposing it dramatically). Finally, I set the flash power to get the desired exposure on the flower.
In the first photo the flash was bare and about 18 inches away. I used a collapsible diffuser to place the flower in essentially open shade.
In the second photo the flash was about a foot way and was equipped with a “softbox”. Again, I used the diffuser to place the flower in “open shade”.
I thought that I had left the softbox at home for the first photo and had to make a choice between using the diffuser in front of the flash or to provide shade. It turns out that the diffuser was in my backpack all of the time… I just hadn’t looked hard enough… heavy sigh!
Of the two, I think the second one shows greater macro details as the cilia on the leaf above the slipper are visible and the veins in the slipper are more evident. Also, the fullness in the flower itself is very pleasing to the eye. It could have used a tad more space on the right as you are so close to the edge.
Now about this absent-mindedness? Didn’t bring the camera for the eagle and had the soft box in your bag all the time?? Isn’t getting OLD a bummer 🙂
Comment by Just Joe — 28 May 2012 @ 8:13 PM
I love the shots of the lady slippers. I noticed they were blooming here near the Maine coast this weekend and was out taking shots of them as well. I struggled a bit with a distracting background and trying to keep the DOF that I needed. I really like yours.
Comment by Brian — 29 May 2012 @ 10:13 PM