Posts in Category: macro
Form and Light (otherwise Flower)
Sometimes it really is about form and light and how they interact more than about the subject itself. Abstract is too angular a word, too, well, abstract, to describe the pure play of light we occasionally see and catch in nature, but I can not, off hand, come up with a better.
What I like here are the big bold colors obviously, orange on green with spikes of red…but it is more about the range of the orange, the shadings and shadowings, the texture of the orange surface, the burning translucency, contrasted with the solid points of the furled petals. And running through it, the single filament of spider web, catching the sun. (If you look closely you can see the author of that thread on the third spike from the left 🙂
This is, I believe, some sort of giant exotic iris from the demonstration gardens at the Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle Washington. It is part of at least 3 blooms, stacked by the telephoto perspective.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1200mm equivalent field of view, taken from about 15 feet. f6.5 @ 1/640th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Blue-eyed Darner: Seattle WA
There were a lot of these Blue-eyed Darners in the Urban Bay Natural Area in Seattle. They were in the air along the edge of Lake Washington, and even more present weaving among the cattails in the lagoon on the other side of “the fill” (as the locals apparently call the reclaimed dump area). I came really close to getting a shot of one in the air…but eventually this specimen settled for a series of photos. It was well worn with tattered wings, but still beautiful with its turquoise eyes and pattern of abdomen spots. This dragonfly really does look like something crafted in a Southwestern Jewelry shop.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 2400mm equivalent field of view (1200mm optical zoom plus 2x digital tel-converter function). f6.5 @ 1/200th @ ISO 100. 2) 1200mm equivalent. f6.5 @ 1/320 @ ISO 125. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
The Bee and the Chicory
Another shot from the Center for Urban Horticulture and Union Bay Natural Area in Seattle. This was out on the trail in the Natural Area. I was walking along, talking to other birders I had met there, when I looked down to see this bee hovering over the Chicory. It never did land. This is the new Canon SX50HS at its best. 1800mm equivalent field of view…1200mm optical zoom plus 1.5x digital tel-converter function. Hand held.
Of course asside from the technical stuff, I just like the vibrant blue, and the bee caught in motion.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. f6.5 @ 1/500th @ ISO80. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Fall in a ball… Old Falls on the Mousam
Though mushrooms of some kind are out pretty much all summer, I always associate the real abundance of fungi on the forest floor with fall. This emerging Fly Amanita, found along the Mousam River at OId Falls, is presented here a little over life-sized. Unlike some of its fellow deadly mushrooms, this one has always looked as poisonous as it really is to me.
The low angle shot was facilitated by the flip out LCD on the Canon SX40HS, and the close view by the 24mm macro setting plus 1.5x digital tel-converter function.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. f2.7 @ 1/30th @ ISO 500. A real forest floor exposure. I would have used the flash if I had been thinking. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. A bit of Local Adjustment Brush to darken and soften the background slightly.
Turtle Head, The Yard
A few years ago, this strange plant appeared along the edge of our yard. It blooms in late August and through September, when most of the rest of our yard flowers are dying down, so it is very conspicuous. The thing is, my wife did not know what it was and could not remember planting it.
A little research turns up the fact that this is a domestic cultivar of wild Turtle Head, which is white. I recently found white Turtle Head growing its natural habitat, actually on the left side of the photo from yesterday, along the Kennebunk River under the bridge, right at the water’s edge.
Since the original stand in our yard is so hardy, my wife has started transplanting it around in shady areas (which in our yard is most of it). We are still not certain where it came from, but a friend seems to remember giving my wife a few plants a few years ago. ?? At any rate, we enjoy its vigorous color…and appreciate it for what it is…a first sign of fall in Maine.
I love the furry tongue.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 24mm macro, plus 1.5x digital tel-extender for scale and working distance. f4 @ 1/125th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Another Back Porch Geranium
On Monday I posted an image of this Geranium plant with rain drops from our back deck (here)…in a unique light that was a serendipitous mix of direct sun and bright reflected light from the sliding glass doors of our kitchen. Studio perfect lighting, but due to no effort of mine. I also posted the pic and text to Google+ as my Pic 4 Today over there. For whatever reason, it went, shall we say, relatively viral. It gathered, in 24 hours, 905 +s, 120 shares, and 230 comments. It was viewed (on Google+ that means it was clicked on and opened in the viewer) by over 183,000 people! For the rock stars of Google+ that might only be bacterial, but for me, when compared to my average 30 +s, 2 shares, and 5 comments, it is definitely viral 🙂
This is another blossom. And again, what makes the image special is that blend of direct sun and reflected light, and what it does for the drops and the texture of the petals. This is a complex blossom, with a second blossom attempting to grow out of the center of the first.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 24mm macro, with 1.5x digital tel-converter for image scale and working distance. f4 @ 1/400th @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Back Deck Geraniums
Sunday morning, when I went to the kitchen for tea, the sun was coming in over the deck rail at just the right angle to reflect back from the windows of the sliding doors and strongly illuminate the large pots of Geraniums my wife had placed on the deck. It was portrait quality lighting, with the mix of direct sun and reflected sun, and the Geraniums glowed with life. I could not resist. And when I got the camera and got out there, I found that the plants were still beaded with drops from the overnight rain. Could not have been better if I had created the whole thing in the studio (if I had a studio :).
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 24mm macro mode, plus 1.5x digital tel-converter for scale and working distance. f4 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Small Stuff in the Netherlands
Sometimes, you just have to look close. A friend and I were walking the main trail in the the Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands between rainstorms looking for birds, when, somehow, this fellow caught my eye in the reeds. It was so dark overhead and so dark down in the reed bed that I had to use the flash. Actually the tangle of reeds served as an ideal diffuser and made the lighting look very natural.
This is a macro at 24mm equivalent plus 1.5x digital tel-converter…which is my favorite macro combination…allowing a good image scale and a comfortable working distance.
I do not know what kind of snail it is. If I had taken it around home I would have looked it up, but I am not yet ready to go looking for Dutch snail sites on the internet.
f2.7 @ 1/60th @ ISO 125. Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Ebony Jewelwing, Emmon’s Preserve
I intended to get back to Emmon’s Preserve and the little tumbling falls on the Batson River in early August to catch the mating dance of the Ebony Jewelwings that live there, but the press of affairs (as they say) and the fact that we were a car down from mid-July to mid-August kept me from it until yesterday afternoon. There are still Ebony Jewelwings by the rapids, but the mating flights were all over.
Still, an Ebony Jewelwing is a an Ebony Jewelwing…with that unmistakable bright metallic green body flashing in the patches of sun in the forest and over the stream. Except, of course, when it is electric blue.
While you could be forgiven for thinking this is a different species, this is the same bug, just in different light. When the bug moves on, it will be green again. This is a much rarer view, generally you only get a glimpse of this look as the Jewelwing settles briefly in the necessary light, and then flits on. The emerald green is what you see 96% of the time.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast. 1680mm equivalent field of view. 1) –1/3EV exposure compensation, f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160. 2) –1/3EV exposure compensation. f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 320. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Again the Blazing Star, Kennebunk Plains
Northern Blazing Star is one of the endangered plants that earned the Kennebunk Plains their protected status. It is certainly a striking plant, and, of course, well worth preserving here in Maine. And worth a second post (I featured the plant on Monday).
This shot is of buds about to open. I like the pattern of closed bud, and I like the fur catching the light on the stems.
The second shot, on the other hand, is the flower full open. Note the range of subtle hues.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. 32mm macro equivalent, 1) f4 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. 2) f4.5@ 1/1250th @ ISO 100.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.