Magnolias ~ Floral Friday

Magnolias in Rain, a photo by C.Duncan's Photography on Flickr.

Magnolias. They ooze old world romance and purity. I love trying to capture those things in the lens. I can spend hours photographing magnolias. And feel renewed afterwards. I was thrilled working on this image for today. Thrilled and ..... giddy. I just love magnolias.

The weather cooperated for once. I love photographing flowers after lazy rain showers, the sky still overcast. The colors are cleaner, no high contrast to work around, and a few rain drops still clinging. Add a little, and I mean little, fill flash to erase deep shadow on the subject and you have the makings of a fine photograph. Had my trusty tripod, plus bumped the ISO up to 320 since there was a slight breeze and I needed my shutter speed to freeze the blossom without loosing the exposure I wanted. It's extremely rewarding to see the image in your mind become the final product on the screen without excessive processing.

Now on to other news. You may have noticed that today's image has been posted through another source other than blogger itself. I want to thank Flickr for providing photographers with the option to post images through their site for a very important reason. I've noticed recently in my blog feed that someone is "lurking" about the blog, waiting for me to post images here, then googling the titles and copying my images on the google search site. NOT cool friends. I don't know what this person is using them for, but it's the sneaky way to ignore the copyright of any of my images. For the most part it's not a huge issue as I have been posting small resolution images, and I'm not naive about what happens in Internet land, but still. So posting through Flickr has eliminated a good portion of this problem as far as I know. And we need to spread the word... photographers work just as hard as anyone, the minute you take their images without permission, you devalue every photographer out there. We already struggle with being asked for free photographs every time we turn around. So let's enjoy the images, and if you're super attached to one, contact me, we'll work something out.

Thanks for the ramble today gang! I appreciate each and every one of you who show up to read the blog and let it inspire you somehow. Thanks! 

Beyond A Butterfly ~ Telephoto Tuesday!

"Monarch In Blue"

I was on a mission. It'd been awhile since I'd looked for the enchanting details of our local parks and gardens. We had a great day for it yesterday, so I jumped at the idea of finding the wonderful amidst the flower beds over at Gage Park in Hamilton. Turns out I didn't have to search for long.

Several perennial flowering shrubs and bushes attract monarch butterflies in the gardens, feeding them for their long journey they're currently making. But I was a little wary. It'd be easy to simply raise the camera and let these beautiful creatures do all the work, but I've been learning about the photographer's intent lately, and this is exactly the kind of scenario I wanted to avoid. I wanted more than just a nice butterfly shot. Now, I know I can't control when and where a butterfly lands, which flowers, for how long, or the angle it sits at. And I can't tell it where the nice light is, the best backdrop, or the best time of day to stop there.

Instead, I kept my eyes peeled for any unique circumstances wherever I spotted the butterflies. I noticed that some evergreens in the shade off in the distance could fill my composition, and at the right aperture, they could be diminished to an interesting smokey bokeh. I knew I'd want this as the backdrop to the monarchs with their brilliant colors if I could get it.

I tested exposures till I got the right look, then waited for a subject to land.

No, not the most remarkable image of a butterfly ever. I can be honest. However, it's the first one for me in the last recent while, that I decided intentionally what worked and how I wanted it to look no matter how long I had to wait. I wanted the light to be the dramatic foil to a common subject. A pretty subject, but common. Now, I always take this approach with B&W's, architecture, and other subject matters... but why was I not applying it to the simpler subjects as well? Instead I'd gotten into the poor habit of letting those shots just fall into my lap. Not that those shots can't be great, and there's definitely a magic to getting those cool spontaneous photos, but sometimes I think we can get lazy with our discoveries. Instead we need to be ready to work at making them everything they could be.

This has been a good reminder for me. And I got two or three shots that proved if I want my photography at a whole new level, I'm going to have to be aware of my intention behind a shot in the first place. I'll post those later on. But for now, I'm pleased to show today's photo.

Thanks for the ramble... have a great day friends!

Creativity ~ Telephoto Tuesday!

"Brilliant Gerbera"

Freedom to be creative. That's what getting my first DSLR a few years back meant to me. My original camera, a point n' shoot, would be considered a dinosaur now. And it was restricting. I would get all these photography books out of the library that would talk about bokeh, aperture, depth of field. And quickly figured out that my tiny little digital couldn't offer me any of that. Point n' shoots have come a long way since then, but I knew when I held my first DSLR that I now had the power to be creative.

To this day I love the deliberate use of a wide open F-stop. Soft shapes with very selective detail, a single subject with a twinkling bokeh as the backdrop. A large aperture on my telephoto as close to a subject as it will let me get (in the case of the posted photographs today an F/4.5) means I can use almost anything as a background. In the image above it was my dining room wall, in the following photo it was a rather abstract oil painting I produced a few years ago. Anything that would contrast nicely with the reds.

"Come Away With Me"

I guess what I needed to remember this week, is how easy it is to play with settings in your camera and create some dramatic photos out of simple ideas. Some great light and a shallow aperture are sometimes all you need. Watch your meter carefully, and away you go. I'm amazed at the amount of people who never leave the comforts of automatic. But a few simple basics and you'll be on your way to learning what your camera really can do for you. And then how to creatively express yourself. I myself have gotten away from doing some close-up work... so I think I'll take the next couple of weeks to find some inspirational subjects to zero in on.

Personal projects! Let's get creative! Thanks for the ramble folks! Have a super day, and get out there with your cameras... in manual for a change!