A study on Fritillaria photography
“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” – Ansel Adams
I've really been working on my photography lately, I get home from work and have time to get a few things done in the home garden before the light starts to get just right. I've hardly been using the lightbox I bought a few years ago anymore. It seems that the the filtered effect of the greenhouse with the setting sun and some forward light from a simple spectrum adjustable LED mounted on a tripod is doing the trick for me. I don't have the fanciest equipment but I've learned to make due with what I have. I doubt very much Ansel would have approved of the use of f stops down in towards f4 and below, but it's working to capture the flowers as I see them every day. Sometimes highlighting a little detail with some reflected light is good, sometimes getting that backlight through the tepals really shows the color. I keep experimenting and trying new things and sometimes things work out! I'm no expert, but if anyone is interested I could put together a talk on plant photography. I've figured a few things out that might help the everyday person make the photo's they see in reality something they can transfer to the page. Below are a few Fritillaria I captured this evening with some brief bio's. I think the images turned out well.
Fritillaria gussichiae |
A nice little crop of photogenic Fritillaria for a Monday evening. Again, I'm no expert, but I would be happy to come to your garden club/society etc, and share some photo's of a wonderful array of Fritillaria and other unusual flower bulbs and discuss photography tips for capturing dramatic plant photo's.
Sunny afternoons after crisp mornings, I buttoned up the African collection after seeing 28 in the overnight forecast.
Cheers,
Mark
Mark