Hibiscus ~ Mono Monday!

"Rose of Sharon"

(1/15 sec.@ F/18, ISO 160, 200mm fl, Remote Shutter/Tripod, Overcast light)

I find Hibiscus challenging to capture properly and with any kind of finesse. They are only in their prime individually for about a day or so, then wilt considerably. I find it easier to photograph them before they fully open. The long flimsy petals crease, flop over, and stick together once they've bloomed. I stand out on the lawn with my camera and I find myself muttering things under my breath like, "come on, work with me girls!!!" as I try to find a single perfect flower to photograph. And if profuse on the tree, the blooms stand out in the background like a bad quilted effect, splotchy and clumped. So I thought I'd try to find a specimen from my front garden that would be workable as a monochromatic image today. It took some doing.

I let the fact that it was overcast after a rain, and that I wanted to use my telephoto, which is a fairly slow lens in low light, to dictate that I needed my tripod and remote so there was zero camera shake. I also know that in low light, my camera doesn't have great noise control when going higher than 200 ISO so I kept it down, also constituting the need for the tripod since after I metered and checked my histogram I realized my shutter speed needed to be longer to let in enough light.

I converted the image to B&W in PSPx2 by using the Platinum Film Fx filter and Curves to fine tune the exposure a bit while in Raw. Some high pass sharpen was applied when everything else was done. In the end, it reminds me of film instead of digital and I like how it looks as a print, with some texture almost.

Hope you all like it! This one goes out to my buddy Lonnie, who is always reminding me not to forget my love of B&W.

Thanks for the ramble, and have a great Monday gang!

Guest Post ~ Floral Friday!

"Rose of Sharon"

I love these guest posts! I get to share great inspirational photos with all of you, and I get to introduce you to some of the photographers that have been an inspiration or influence for me. Today's images are from a good friend and mentor from the Boston area, David Pratt. David was one of the first photographers to help me around the digital darkroom a few years ago and continues to be a huge encouragement to me. We first met at BetterPhoto where you can view his online gallery and I'm happy today to share two of his favorite floral images with you!

Here's Dave to explain how he captured these photographs;

"This was taken right after a summer shower. It was cloudy so I could have some nice soft light. I had been waiting for a shower to come by so I could get out and take a few shots of these beautiful flowers with the water droplets on them. The bloom above caught my eye and I set up my tripod. I shot this in manual mode. I was also shooting RAW so that I could have more control over the final version. I zoomed in nice and tight so that the flower would fill the frame. After tweaking the levels and curves in PSE , I then used Nik Effex for some final adjustments. I used clarifier, and tweaked the saturation a bit. Below is the shooting info."

Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/8

Av( Aperture Value ) 20.0

Metering Mode Evaluative Metering

ISO Speed 100

Lens EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

Focal Length 55.0 mm

"Swallowtail"

"I wasn't even out shooting for this shot. I was actually sitting on my deck enjoying a cold beer, when my wife noticed this swallowtail sitting on our butterfly bush. So, like any photographer I know would do, I ran inside and grabbed my camera, quickly switched to my Canon 70-300 zoom, since I knew this guy would not be hanging around if I was too close.

Luckily he was still there when I got back outside. I got as close as I felt I could without scaring him off. Zoomed in on him and snapped away. I had the focus on servo mode so that I could follow him around if he flew. He hung out on the flowers for about 5 minutes, then flew off. This was my favorite of the bunch. I had the camera on program mode, since I did not have time to play with my settings. Made some levels and curves adjustments in PSE, ran it through Nik Effex for clarity and boosted the saturation a bit. This was the one and only time I have even seen a swallowtail around the house."

I'm extremely grateful that Dave agreed to be a guest for today gang! Hope he has inspired you all to keep photographing nature, and to be ready for any surprises that might come your way! If you've enjoyed his post today I encourage you to visit both his flickr page AND his new David A. Pratt Photography Page on Facebook. There you can also inquire about purchasing a print! Be sure to leave a comment below to let him know if you enjoyed the post below.

Thanks David for joining us, and thanks for the ramble folks! Happy Friday, and have a great weekend!