It's My Nature » Daisy

Simple Oxeye Daisy

Ed — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:50:55 +0000

(1/100 sec @ f/11; ISO 200; 0 EV; Focal Length 135mm; natural light)

… from our Saturday morning trip to Jacobsburg State Park here in Pennsylvania. In this particular case, I set up the camera directly above the flower and shot straight down at it so you don’t see a stem. It appears to be just floating in air.

Image made using my Canon 30D and 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens w/ Canon 500D close-up filter/lens, tripod-mounted.

Hope you enjoy the image.

First Daisy of the Season (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum)

Ed — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:36:55 +0000

(1/15 sec @ f/22; ISO 400; 0 EV; Natural light)

Made this image a fews days ago but it got lost in the HDR IR shenanigans of the past few days.

I used a simple set up comprised of my Canon 30D with the Sigma 150mm macro lens; tripod-mounted.

Hope you enjoy the image.

Philadelphia Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus)

Ed — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:14:34 +0000

(1/15 sec @ f/16; ISO 800; +2/3 EV; Natural light)

We get both Philadelphia (or Common) Fleabane and Daisy Fleabane around here in quite large quantities. These almost daisy-like flowers started blooming a couple of weeks ago and will continue to bloom throughout the summer months. This particular flower is not as pink as some of the Philadelphia Fleabane that I see around here but then it’s not as white as the Daisy Fleabane either. The pink buds are what tipped the id to Philadelphia Fleabane. The buds, surrounding the flower the way they do, are what initially attracted me to this particular plant.

Image made with my Canon 30D; Sigma 150mm Macro lens; tripod-mounted with a Novoflex focusing rail.

Pushin' Daisies

Ed — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:08:47 +0000

Well, I guess I am really only pushin’ one daisy in this image.

I made this image late last Spring using a Canon 30D and 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens w/ a 500D close-up lens (filter). I focused on the yellow center of the flower and opened up the aperture to f/4 which allowed me to slightly blur all the petals radiating from the center. It also blurred the background nicely. This is one of my two favorite daisy images from last year. The other, shot at f/32, may find its way on to this blog very soon.

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

Zoom In… Zoom Out

Ed — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:28:10 +0000

In my previous post (“Patterns”) I said that I am now much more likely to photographically decompose the subject and focus in on specific elements of a flower rather than the flower itself. While this is true, it doesn’t mean that I have totally abandoned flower portraits. I still work a few into almost every flower shoot. But the ratio is probably 10:1 tight close-ups to portraits.

When I do cut flower portraits, I generally like to use a black background. It’s personal preference but I just think that black sets off the flower color better than almost any other color background that I have tried. That’s what I did with this portrait of a Gerbera Daisy.

But recently while viewing a video presentation by one of my favorite nature photographers, Tony Sweet, I was inspired to try something else the next time I set up a cut flower session. He set up bunches of flowers and then he pulled out a single bloom and placed it in the foreground so the background was the bunches of multi-colored flowers. By separating the single bloom from the bunches by enough distance, opening up the aperture to reduce the depth of field, and focusing on the foreground flower; he created a wonderful portrait against a beautifully diffuse, multi-colored background. That’s something I have to try. Keep an eye out here for results of my experimenting over weeks to come.

In the meantime, here is that Gerbera portrait that I promised.

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

Breaking the Rules

Ed — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:53:53 +0000

What would life be without rules? Some might say much better. Others might say anarchy.

Rules are made to be followed… sometimes. And rules are made to be broken… sometimes. The trick is knowing when to follow the rules and when to break them.

Take the image above. I have broken a rule of photography that says never put an out-of-focus element in front of the in-focus subject because it will detract from the overall image. Here I have allowed the stem in the foreground to be out of focus while the petals of the Gerbera Daisy are in focus. I did it on purpose by opening up the aperture and focusing on the petals because I wanted the image to be about the beautiful underside of the Gerbera flower. A sharp, in-focus stem would, I believe, distract the viewer’s eye from the petals. The image would have been dominated by the stem standing out in the foreground rather than the flower’s radiant beauty filling the background.

Am I right? To my eye, I am. To yours? Well you be the judge.

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

Looking for one thing…

Ed — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:58:47 +0000

and finding another.

Sometimes we find ourselves so focused on what we are looking for that we fail to see what is right in front of us. That almost happened to me this past weekend when I stopped by the local floral shop in search of that perfect rose to photograph. Fortunately the florist allows me to browse the cooler on my own. I looked and I looked but I just couldn’t seem to find that perfect rose. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. It was almost to good to be true. I turned my head and there it was… the most perfect, most vibrant hot pink Gerbera Daisy that I have ever seen.

I didn’t find what I was looking for but by keeping my eyes open to what was there, I found something much better.

Here is one of my favorite photos of that vibrant, pink Gerbera.

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