What is this wildflower? It has lupine/delphinium like leaves
What is the best way to photography these in a field.? I end up with grasses in the way and so much extraneous stuff. I live on Green Mountain in Denver and the mountain is filled with flowers right now - not the kind they get in the higher mountains necessarily and more spaced out. Lots of grass. Its gorgeous to look at but then when I take the photograph its pretty messy and nothing stands out. There may be no good answer and maybe I should find something else to photograph.
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I don’t do a lot of flower photography, but when I do I like to do “shoot throughs”, so the extraneous plants are out of focus. Doesn’t work in al situations, though.
Hi Kathy. Definitely a lupine, but there are a lot of them and I’m not familiar with Colorado wildflowers. As for isolating them, it’s pretty difficult. If you can get a clear path long enough so the foreground isn’t an issue, the background can be handled with focal length and aperture. Grasses are actually pretty easy as you can pull them out of the way temporarily. I usually carry some string and good sized nails to tie things back and I’ll sometimes use items of clothing to hold a plant down out of the way temporarily.
Hi Bonnie
Thanks for the chart. I think the lupine in the photo might be the last one in the chart, but its hard to tell. I was actually shooting through when I shot this but it still presented a challenge.
Have now decided to try a wide angle shot and , on a hike yesterday, found some possibilities.
Thanks Dennis. I am putting away the long lens and going with a wide angle next time I go up our little hill. Will carry some gardener tape with me for the flowers in the front. Since I wrote the initial post I found some areas that maybe are more conducive to display than the initial area I was working with. Still grasses but more flowers mixed in.
Kathy: I disagree with your assessment of this image; it is wonderful! Certainly a lupine and a fine capture of one. I like the bud as well. I’m not averse to snipping and pulling extraneous grass and such in the field as long as its not in someone’s garden! Well done.>=))>
My strategy for wildflowers is to get low and “bracket” my position, lens choice and framing lots of ways in the field for original capture, in lieu of sentencing myself to desk time after the fact.
While I’m taken with this as-is, I’d also have shifted my position to the left a bit for more breathing room between the bud and spike. I suspect I’d have been right with you in opting for a long lens, both to limit DOF and isolate the spike.
While potentially altering the background, experimenting with camera elevation also creates opportunities to avoid intervening vegetation. In that regard I’m thankful that the introduction of swiveling screens has coincided with my advancing years and stiffening joints!
I’m not a ripper, clipper or tearer when dealing with extraneous vegetation. My strategy is to use whatever is at hand to bend and hold the extras out of the way if at all possible. A jacket or sweater is especially handy for doing that with elevated shots like this.
I’m with Bill on all counts. It doesn’t take a floral expert to recognize a beautiful photograph. I think you’ve done a great job isolating the lupine against a soft and uniform background; clearly you had to choose the right settings to blur the background. Actually, the longer focal lengths do this very well and wide angle lenses, IMHO would meant more for the broader landscape, great depth and showcasing say a field of flowers.
Again, I’m not proficient with flowers, but I personally like the “cramming” or stacking effect; shooting through other flowers and vegetation throwing them out of focus - except for your main subject.
If I was to offer any suggestions, the only thing I can think of would be to perhaps drop the luminosity, increase the contrast or otherwise give this a little pop - but not too much as the subtle and soft nature of the colors are wonderful already.
