I think I will end this series of images made during our recent trip to Longwood Gardens (PA) with one that continues to bring a smile to my face every time I look at it. Yes, the kids did appear. And yes, they had mom and dad in tow. It was time to break out [...]]]>

I think I will end this series of images made during our recent trip to Longwood Gardens (PA) with one that continues to bring a smile to my face every time I look at it. Yes, the kids did appear. And yes, they had mom and dad in tow. It was time to break out the macro lens and really work in close. So I put my Sigma 70mm macro lens w/ a 12mm extension tube on the Canon 50D and went to work getting up-close and personal with the orchids.

What can I say? Had I not brought along the macro lens, I very probably would have missed this “Close Encounter of the Orchid Kind”. There standing in the heart of this beautiful orchid was a tiny little alien screaming “Take Me to Your Leader!”

Not a whole lot to say here. Most of the morning, I carried two cameras ready to go. One was the 50D with the 24-70 and the other was the 30D with the Lensbaby. I added the soft focus optic for this image. Processing was done with Nik filters – Viveza 2 to adjust brightness, [...]]]>

Not a whole lot to say here. Most of the morning, I carried two cameras ready to go. One was the 50D with the 24-70 and the other was the 30D with the Lensbaby. I added the soft focus optic for this image. Processing was done with Nik filters – Viveza 2 to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation and structure; Glamour Glow filter in Color Efex Pro; and then, at the last second, I decide to add a bit of sharpening with Sharpener Pro. The sharpening added more detail to the petals while leaving the halos characteristic of the soft focus optic intact. I kinda liked the result.

This is another image from our weekend trip to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. As I said in my previous post, what I had hoped would be a quiet winter morning in the Conservatory (like we had spent there last year) quickly [...]]]>

This is another image from our weekend trip to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. As I said in my previous post, what I had hoped would be a quiet winter morning in the Conservatory (like we had spent there last year) quickly turned into a zoo  because it was “Or-KID Day” at the gardens and what seemed like a million kids showed up with parents in tow.

Despite these unforeseen challenges, I did get to do some shooting starting early on (before the kids arrived) with some wide angle HDR photography before progressing to some Macro and Lensbaby Soft-focus work. I will be presenting some examples of each over the next week.

I had just one opportunity to make the 5-image series I needed for this HDR composite image. Unseen stage left are the elevator and stairs up from the entrance. Obviously, I got there first, got set up and made this series of images just before the elevator doors opened the first group of visitors walked into the scene. I used my Canon 50D and 24-70 f/2.8L lens mounted on my tripod. I created the HDR image using Photomatix Pro and processed the image using Nik filters (Dfine for noise reduction), Viveza (to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, structure) and a couple of Color Efex Pro filters to tweak things a bit. I finished up with a bit of sharpening using Nik Sharpener Pro.

And this is the result.

Barb and I spent a most interesting day at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA yesterday. It is always nice to spend a winter day within the warm confines of the conservatory. This is pretty much the middle of their orchid exhibit. So between the orchids and everything else, there is really a lot to [...]]]>

Barb and I spent a most interesting day at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA yesterday. It is always nice to spend a winter day within the warm confines of the conservatory. This is pretty much the middle of their orchid exhibit. So between the orchids and everything else, there is really a lot to see. It was also an interesting day in other ways as well, not the least of which was that it turned out to be a kid’s days (my bad for not checking the events schedule more closely). And when we arrived about 20 minutes prior to opening, there were about 20 people with tripods standing around – a camera club event.

Despite these unforeseen challenges, I did get to do some shooting starting early on (before the kids arrived) with some wide angle HDR photography before progressing to some Macro and Lensbaby Soft-focus work. I will be presenting some examples of each over the next week.

This first image is a “make good” from last year when I tried to make this image and blew the composition, blew the image, blew the processing. You name it; I blew it. So I was hoping it would be back this year and I knew I wanted another chance. I approaching this image several ways but finally decided on the approach used for this image. I used my Canon 50D and 24-70 f/2.8L lens mounted on my tripod. I attached a Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter so I could control the shutter speed in order to get the silky water. Then I took a series of 5 images to use in an HDR composite. The five images varied in their EV (-2 2/3, -1 2/3, -2/3, +1/3, +1 1/3) and consequently their shutter speed. I created the HDR image using Photomatix Pro and processed the image using Nik filters (Dfine for noise reduction), Viveza (to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, structure) and a couple of Color Efex Pro filters ending with Glamour Glow. I finished up with a bit of Sharpening using Sharpener Pro.

And this is the result.

NOTE: You may have noticed the Adorama ad in the left column below my page listings. I am now an Adorama Affiliate. I will say more about this over the next week or so. In a nutshell, if you are interesting in making a purchase of any type (camera, lens, bag, card, binoculars, etc) and click through to Adorama via the link here on my website to make that purchase, it gets recorded and I credited with a referral. And you will have my deepest gratitude!

Lady’s Slipper #1 (1/50 sec @ f/4; ISO 800; -1/3 EV; Natural light)

Lady’s Slipper #2 (1/40 sec @ f/5.0; ISO 800; -1/3 EV;Natural light)

(These two images are Copyright Ed Vatza 2009. Usage without my prior written approval is prohibited.)

Vacation is winding down. Tomorrow, Tuesday, will be our last day in Bar Harbor/Acadia. We will be [...]]]>

Lady’s Slipper #1 (1/50 sec @ f/4; ISO 800; -1/3 EV; Natural light)

Lady’s Slipper #2 (1/40 sec @ f/5.0; ISO 800; -1/3 EV;Natural light)

(These two images are Copyright Ed Vatza 2009. Usage without my prior written approval is prohibited.)

Vacation is winding down. Tomorrow, Tuesday, will be our last day in Bar Harbor/Acadia. We will be heading home at the crack of dawn on Wednesday. The weather was spotty but it was still great to get away for a while.

Yesterday was devoted to two bird walks as part of the Acadia Birding Festival. It was very rainy and I left the cameras behind and only bringing along binoculars. While walking along the Witch Hole Pond Carriage Road, I spotted two Pink Lady Slippers and made mental notes of where they were located.

I awoke at 0430 this morning and I saw that, while the skies were still overcast, the rain had stopped. I decided to head back out to photograph the Lady’s Slippers.

Backgrounds were tough so I really opened up the aperture shooting at between f/3.5 and f/5.6 and I had to crank up the ISO to 800 in order to get any shutter speed at all.

Images were made with my Canon 30D and Sigma 150mm Macro lens; tripod-mounted.

Note the coloration differences between the two flowers.

(1/100 sec @ f/8; ISO 200; -2/3 EV; Natural Light)

We went to Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, Pa. today for their annual native plant sale. We have been slowly turning over our very modest backyard with native plants and wildflowers. This year we purchased some Purple Coneflowers and a couple of varieties of [...]]]>

(1/100 sec @ f/8; ISO 200; -2/3 EV; Natural Light)

We went to Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, Pa. today for their annual native plant sale. We have been slowly turning over our very modest backyard with native plants and wildflowers. This year we purchased some Purple Coneflowers and a couple of varieties of purple asters (we need more late summer/fall blooming plants) as well as a couple of Jack-in-the-Pulpits.  

Anyway we got there early and had about two hours to wander around before the sale began. The morning started off very slowly. The only new flowers seemed to be the Mayapples. The we hit the jackpot finding some blooming Fiery Pinks and then a small grouping of three Large Yellow Lady’s Slippers – the first of the season for me. And speaking of hitting the jackpot, we headed to the pond after making our purchase and hit the frog jackpot so there will be some more frog photos during the week to come. 

This particular image was made with my Canon 30D; Sigma 150mm Macro lens; tripod mounted.

Hope you enjoy the image.

I came across this Green Heron early one morning back in September at Peace Valley Park in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Lake Galena and much of the park was shrouded with a thick fog that morning but this Green Heron along with several Great Blues could still be seen through the fog.  Everything seemed muted and [...]]]>

I came across this Green Heron early one morning back in September at Peace Valley Park in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Lake Galena and much of the park was shrouded with a thick fog that morning but this Green Heron along with several Great Blues could still be seen through the fog.  Everything seemed muted and the colors, particularly in the Green Heron, looked desaturated. I had to do quite a bit of post-processing to bring this image to where it is now.

What really caught my attention at the lake was how perfectly still this heron remained. He was absolutely motionless for at least 30 minutes. Through the fog, I was beginning to question whether he was real. Then what caught my attention in post-processing was the reflection of the heron in the water. The reflection looks almost perfect. 

(This image is Copyright Ed Vatza 2009. Usage without my prior written approval is prohibited.)

This is another orchid from Longwood Gardens (Kennett Square, PA). This particular genus did not appear to be part of the main orchid exhibit which opened this past weekend. We had wandered off into another room of the conservatory where we were all alone and found a number of these orchid plants as a part [...]]]>

This is another orchid from Longwood Gardens (Kennett Square, PA). This particular genus did not appear to be part of the main orchid exhibit which opened this past weekend. We had wandered off into another room of the conservatory where we were all alone and found a number of these orchid plants as a part of a display of lush tropical greens.

I swear I came close to working my way entirely around this particular orchid plant trying to come up with a good angle on the flowers and, at the same time, get a background with which I was satisfied. Fortunately by the end of my session with the Epidendrum, I had several alternatives from which to choose. I think this is the image that I prefer. 

For those of you who are interested in such things, all of the orchid images that I posted over the past several days were made using a Canon 50D DSLR camera with a Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro lens, tripod mounted.

Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

(This image is Copyright Ed Vatza 2009. Usage without my prior written approval is prohibited.)

In my previous post, I commented on the difficulty in getting great shots of many of the beautiful orchids on display at Longwood Gardens (Kennett Square, PA) due to less than spectacular backgrounds and some very tough light. Still I was able to come away with some photographs with which I was pretty happy.

This is [...]]]>

In my previous post, I commented on the difficulty in getting great shots of many of the beautiful orchids on display at Longwood Gardens (Kennett Square, PA) due to less than spectacular backgrounds and some very tough light. Still I was able to come away with some photographs with which I was pretty happy.

This is one of a lady’s slipper orchid – Paphiopedilum genus – Edward Marshall Boehm. It’s a real beauty to look at and a joy to photograph. 

But it also appeals to me on another level. This flower stirs memories – pleasant memories of wandering around Acadia National Park (ME) last June in search of the elusive lady’s slippers and of all the help we received from folks as diverse as a National Park Ranger/Naturalist and the waitress at our favorite Bar Harbor breakfast place. Some of our searches were successful – like the lady’s slippers we found atop Cadillac Mountain. Others were less so – like the long walk along the Eagle Lake Carriage Road in search of the flowers right along the side of the road. We never found them.  But it is all about the search. The discovery is just a bonus. 

Hope you enjoy this one from Longwood Gardens. It will have to do until our return to Acadia in June.

(This image is Copyright Ed Vatza 2009. Usage without my prior written approval is prohibited.)

My wife and I were up at the crack of dawn yesterday and headed down to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. It’s about an hour and half ride on an early Sunday morning in winter. As we talked on the ride down, we realized that it had been, unbelievably, nearly thirty years since we [...]]]>

My wife and I were up at the crack of dawn yesterday and headed down to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. It’s about an hour and half ride on an early Sunday morning in winter. As we talked on the ride down, we realized that it had been, unbelievably, nearly thirty years since we last visited the gardens. How time flies. 

Longwood Gardens is expansive with many, many outdoor display areas. But on a cold January day, what attracted us wasn’t outdoor displays but rather the new orchid exhibit inside the conservatory. I must say that hundreds upon hundreds of flowering orchids (as well as other flowers) is just what the doctor ordered to cure the mid-winter blahs. 

We spent about three hours wandering around the conservatory during which time, I took many photographs. I must say that in my estimation, for as beautiful as the orchids are, the conservatory was a much less than ideal venue for photography. Once you looked beyond the actual flowers, the backgrounds left much to be desired – bare walls, pipes, windows and the pots of other orchids filled the backgrounds. Lighting was also very harsh. With so much glass, light was bouncing and reflecting everywhere. Good compositions and images were very difficult to come by not just for me but for other other photographers as well. 

I will say that it was almost as interesting to watch the photographers as it was to look at the flowers. There were definitely two distinct groups – those like me, who approached the flowers, studying them, trying desperately to find the proper framing, background and composition. and those who just walked around snapping picture after picture of the beautiful orchids. At the end of the day, I am willing to bet that the latter group walked away happier than the former. There were many photos to be had, just precious few “perfect” ones. 

Here is one image that I liked a lot. It’s not perfect but it isn’t bad. For those botanists out there, it is a Doritaenopsis genus – Unnamed Hybrid.

Comments on this image, or any of my images here on my blog, are always greatly appreciated so don’t be shy.

(This image is Copyright Ed Vatza 2009. Usage without my prior written approval is prohibited.)