Any
Any
Calypso bulbosa (Fairy Slipper) in the Orchidaceae family love to be hidden amongst the old growth forest near my home in Washington State. Its quite the joy to find just one but in this case a whole family including twins. Using my 180mm macro on a flat tripod supported the cameras while I waited for winds to be calm.
Michael: Terrific find and a solid capture. The sharpness on the main flowers is excellent. The BG takes this down a peg for me but perhaps thatās my jealousy showing through at your opportunityto shoot these beauties in the wild. Nicely done. >=))>
Thank-you Bill,
Yes I purposely placed the others in the background and softened DOF to show the viewer the uniqueness of several plants together. I have so many images of individuals alone I just had to try something of a family portrait with out to much distraction of the Orchids leading lines into the blossom.
Hi Mike,
These orchids are becoming quite rare in Michigan along the Great Lakes shoreline. Your comp is pretty good and the BG unfortunately is quite busy. You may want to carry a small card with some black velvet cloth attached to make an impromptu studio background for shots like this one. It will give your photo a different appearance with a less environmental POV. You could try cloning out the light stem and darkening the BG which would improve your comp. Well done getting these tiny flowers nice and sharp with ideal soft lighting. Well doneā¦Jim
I always like seeing flowers in their environment, Michael, so the bg really does not bother me at all, except for the bright green spot close to the R side flower, which could easily be darkened a little if you thought it worthwhile. Beautifully lit and executed image !
What an amazing flowers , Michael! As Ian I like flowers in their natural environment as well. Very well captured.
A very nice job on the orchids, Michael. Iāve only run across these a couple of times. I think it was near Icicle Creek, but my memory is pretty vague. I like the array of the two main subjects, but I do find the background a bit distracting, particularly the out of focus orchid and stem and the bright green leaf in the center. Dappled sunlight in the woods is really difficult to deal with. I usually try to shade the scene to subdue the background more and sometimes will slip an artificial background behind the subjects to isolate them more. On common flowers, I might bend the background one out of the way temporarily, but I wouldnāt dare do that with these for fear of damaging it.
Thank-you Jim
Appreciate the input
Thank-you for your kind input Dennis
Your correct on location by the way this was up the Icicle along the connector trail between Jack Trout TH and Blackpine TH. I have for thirty so years photographed Calypso bulbosa on south shore road on Lake Wenatchee between Camp Zanicalache and Glacier View CG if your in the area check this out sometime it is perhaps the densest population I have found East or West in Washington State.
For many years I did the drop-in a dark cloth or something similar in the background. Listing to folks reviewing my flower images they all seemed to ask the same line of questioning as where the image was taken. What they really were asking is where the plant lived in the ecosystem. They were not really connecting to where the plant flourished and where it was in the world. I realized isolating the flower looks ok for some folks and certainly is ok with me but all my past images in my collection began look like there only to be seen in a text book.
I now take the approach similar to good portraiture and include the subject in its environment and tell the story of the plant, if only a little more to help viewers understand and perhaps appreciate their beauty just that much more. As you know its more challenging to get the emphasis on the flower and not have distracting elements draw the eye away or confuse the artistic intent you are trying to achieve. I do my lighting in layers with first building light to direct the viewer to the main subject. Then subtract everything else and slowly add back for a balance I desire. I have a series of flags Iāll hang over head to darken background to my desires. Your correct sometimes a hot spot will slip through and on my monitor it looked ok but with all the great comments in kind assistance here I will revisit and implement TK action to work on the spot of concern. This image was also created before I mastered stack focusing and I heavily depended on small apertures for depth of focus. If to do this image now I would implement more control of what I want the viewer to see in background with stacking. So I guess more images to go make!
Dennis if in the future you find yourself in the area give me a shout.
Hereās hoping everyone is taking sometime to enjoy making images and staying safe.
[quote=āMichaelPower, post:9, topic:13234ā]
Thank-you for your kind input Ian and Ellen.
For many years I did the drop-in a dark cloth or something similar in the background. Listing to folks reviewing my flower images they all seemed to ask the same line of questioning as where the image was taken. What they really were asking is where the plant lived in the ecosystem. They were not really connecting to where the plant flourished and where it was in the world. I realized isolating the flower looks ok for some folks and certainly is ok with me but all my past images in my collection began look like there only to be seen in a text book.
I now take the approach similar to good portraiture and include the subject in its environment and tell the story of the plant, if only a little more to help viewers understand and perhaps appreciate their beauty just that much more. As you know its more challenging to get the emphasis on the flower and not have distracting elements draw the eye away or confuse the artistic intent you are trying to achieve. I do my lighting in layers with first building light to direct the viewer to the main subject. Then subtract everything else and slowly add back for a balance I desire. I have a series of flags Iāll hang over head to darken background to my desires. Your correct sometimes a hot spot will slip through and on my monitor it looked ok but with all the great comments in kind assistance here I will revisit and implement TK action to work on the spot of concern. This image was also created before I mastered stack focusing and I heavily depended on small apertures for depth of focus. If to do this image now I would implement more control of what I want the viewer to see in background with stacking. So I guess more images to go make!
Thank-you and hereās hoping everyone is taking sometime to enjoy making images and staying safe.
