Saturday, July 23, 2011

Essential Equipment for Floral Macro Photography

You might think I'm kidding, but the photo below shows some of the equipment that I regard as essential for taking good quality floral macros.




The boots (Vasque Sundowners) are waterproof, allowing me to pursue flowers anywhere in the garden after it's rained, or after watering.  In addition, they provide ankle support when I'm walking over uneven terrain and not paying close attention to the ground below me - I'm usually looking for my next shot, and not the ground.  And, these boots have a steel shank in the sole, which allows me to sit on the heels of my boots when in a kneeling position for long periods of time without foot fatigue.  This kneeling position provides a very stable position from which to shoot, which is critical for macro photography.


The hat provides protection from the elements, particularly the sun.  This hat, made by Outdoor Research, has a 50+ UPF rating.  (The Ultraviolet Protection Factor (or “UPF”) rating system measures the UV protection provided by fabric. It is very similar to the SPF rating system used for sunscreens.  A garment with a UPF of 50 only allows 1/50th of the UV radiation falling on the surface of the garment to pass through it. In other words, it blocks 49/50ths or 98% of the UV radiation.)  One of the features of this hat that makes it ideal for photography is its flexible brim.  Unlike a baseball cap, the brim on this hat flops up in front and stays in the upright position, thus not interfering with my camera when looking through the viewfinder.  Very nice!


And finally, the kneeling pad is great for kneeling.  It is also great for sitting on when occasions require doing so (i.e., when capturing photos of bees and other garden insects).  Having dry, happy knees and buttocks at the end of the day is a very good thing.  I bought this kneeling/buttocks pad at Home Depot in the Garden Section for less that $10.


Well there you have it.  Being dry and comfortable makes for good floral macro photography.  I encourage you to look into getting these items if you don't already have them as part of your photographic arsenal. 


Happy shooting!


Mike

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Love That Garden

My latest trip to the Colorado State University Annual Flower Trial Garden yielded the following shots. It's nice having such a wonderful garden nearby!

Yellow Gerbera
Gerbera Daisy.

Once Upon a Time...
Dahlia.

So Much Pollen, So Little Time!
A honeybee on Osteospermum.

Rather Plain
Bumblebee on a dahlia.

I'll be adding more photos as I post them on Flickr.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Happy Penstemon

I'm going to look into Wordless Wednesday and see what it's all about. Seems like something I'd like to participate in.

Monday, July 11, 2011

A Closer Look at a Dragonfly

I recently had the opportunity to take numerous shots of a dragonfly with my macro lens.  For whatever reason this guy was quite content with sitting still while I snapped away.  As a result, I got a level of detail that I haven't been able to obtain in the past.

Click on any photo to see it's photo data.

Inspecting the Daylilies

Dragonfly Art

The Profile View

Friday, July 8, 2011

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Hiding in Plain Sight

A very small spider from my recent trip to the CSU W. D. Holley Plant Environmental Research Center - Herbaceous Perennials & Ornamental Grasses Section.

This guy was about the size of an M&M chocolate. He's "hiding" under a flipped up petal of a phlox flower.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Help!

I'm still trying to figure out this blogger.com stuff.  I have been unable to import multiple photos from Flickr into one blog post.  I did a little research on Google and it appears that Flickr changed something a couple of years ago that makes it impossible to do so.  I have a hard time believing that is really the case.

So, if you know of a way to import several photos from Flickr into a single post on blogger, please let me know.

Also, I just uploaded several photos from my computer into a post, enlarged them to "large" and was dissappointed with their appearance in my blog.  They weren't particularly sharp and they weren't as bright as they appeared on my computer.  I then posted them on Flickr and imported them, one at a time into separate posts (because that's the way you have to do it - I think), and they looked great.  Hmmm?

Any suggestions would be helpful and apprecitated.

Thanks,

Mike

Below is the same image that I imported from my computer.


Pretty dull and blurry compared to the first image above that I imported from Flickr.  I certainly wouldn't be impressed with the second image if I was visiting this blog post.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

And Then There Are Water Droplets

Thought I'd share this with you. The little lens stars and crisp detail in the refraction droplet make this shot kind of pretty.

Have a great 4th of July Holiday!