Being spring, the garden nurseries are now open and stocking perennials and annuals to fill our garden beds. As I have noted before I am both a photographer and gardener. I now look at flowers for not only how they will look in the garden but for their photographic appeal.

Poppies are wonderful subjects with the crepe paper pedals and showy centers. As you can see in the blog images I picked up a couple of them and before planting them have taken the time to photograph them with the setup I detailed a few blogs ago, http://staceyglloyd.blogspot.com/2010/02/anticipation-how.html.

Next year I will photograph them in their garden settings.

Image details:

1. The first image is composed from two images. They both used a heavily textured piece of glass moved in a circular motion. One (A) had the glass between the two flowers and the 2nd (B) in front of both flowers. In photoshop the two were blended (normal) slightly with A in the background. Using a brush the flower center detail of A (the white poppy) was revealed via a mask .
2. The approach for the second image was similar, but with different glass that was held still. This created the water like illusion with the center of the front flower being out of the “water”
3. With a pink backdrop an in camera overlay of a sharp image and a soft focused image where blended to create the soft glow.
4. Poppy bud and flower in front of a obliquely moved glass pain with yellow tulips in the background.

Do you ever find that after you discover a new technique, you start linking that technique with a specific subject? For example, I have found that after using pans and swipes on tall vertical trees I tend only think of using that technique for trees. While it works well for trees, it can work well for other subjects (if I think of it). One thing that helps is to abstract and associate techniques with the abstraction. For example, tall pine trees can boil down to strong vertical lines.

While lying on the ground shooting hostas emerging from the ground yesterday, I was able to abstract and see it similar to a forest of vertical lines. I have included a couple images from that shoot here along with a forest shot from the past.

There are a lot of other possibilities during spring – grape hyacinths can look like tall trees with purple foliage when viewed from the ground. So get out there and see differently – abstract and try something you never would have before with a subject.

Not a word you hear everyday – virga  – no it isn’t some new drug.

As I was out taking a drive early this morning I saw some unique cloud phenomenon being lit by the morning sun. I quickly pulled off the road and looked for a shot of this phenomenon. As I finished taking a couple pictures a farmer walked over to see what I was up to. As we began to talk, he quickly explained that what I was looking at was “virga”, rain the evaporates before hitting the ground. He explained beyond that going into the low and high pressure centers that were moving in and out respectively – he anticipated less than 0.1 inches of rain. This farmer knew his weather.

I had seen these streaks before preceding rains, but didn’t know it had a special name. Now I do and so do you – virga.

The blog images are HDR images. I choose to go with HDR because past experienced indicated that it really helps bring out cloud/sky detail. Notice that I also used a long lens to emphasize the sky. On the last image is used NikSoft’s Viveza to light up the lights.

This may seem like a funny title for spring, but as I was doing garden bed cleanup I ran across some old hydrangea blooms from last year. They have decayed in such as way as to leave intricate lace pedals. I decided to pick up a couple and shoot some images.

I put various parts in a clamp to hold them in place and set up dried hydrangea blooms in the background for color (with a light green cloth behind them) – seemed appropriate. It was not real easy to create compositions that worked. Generally very selective focus was necessary to separate out the intricate details of one part versus another. I used a Nikon 105 micro lens. The last image required the addition of a Nikon 5T closeup lens.

In post processing I leaned toward high keying the images to go with the light delicate nature of the subject. I also enhanced the selective focus or added blur vignettes if needed.

Which image do people like best?

Magnolia’s are sure one beautiful flower to shoot – so soft. I just got a chance to shoot a star magnolia last night and the bud of a tulip magnolia earlier in the day. In the next week or so the magnolias at Portland’s Hoyt Arboretum should be at peak. I am looking forward to that. I visited there Friday and the buds were just starting to break.

Blog images:

1. The first image is a selective blend of two exposures. One is as sharp of the core center as possible. The other was as shallow a depth a field of possible to get the orange globe from a house light. I used the center region from the first.
2. The second image is an in camera blend of a sharp focused bug overlayed with a complete soft focus bud (which creates the glow).
3. Shot at a moderate aperture of f9 to get a region of the magnolia sharp while keeping the car in the background out of focus. The cars color picked up on the pink in the magnolia.
4. This last image is shot at f7 to keep the light gap in the tree limbs generally round behind the magnolia. This somewhat monotone image captures the ethereal feel of the magnolia.

As I have noted in a couple of blogs, spring is here in the Northwest. It has been progressing faster than I would like. It can get frustrating as you see things come and go before you get all the shots you would like. Especially when you have another daytime job.  If you miss some bloom, you know it will be another year before it comes again. Or maybe you did get in a shot, but it didn’t quite come out like you wanted – maybe you will get to redo it next year – if you remember. I am not complaining, but I thought I would share one of the feelings you experience as a photographer. I suspect this is a common one.

Fortunately there is quite a string of blooming subjects around here in spring so you can’t dwell on what you missed, but look forward to what is still coming.

For the last  blog shot I broke the rules, but I think it still works. It is not only  out of focus, but completely out of focus  not a single sharp point – bet you know what they are. This images is an impression – showing only abstracted shapes, lines and color.

While out camping and relaxing this past sunny weekend I noticed some unique clouds overhead. I don’t what type they are, but there was a grouping of clouds that all looked like Nike swooshes. I do live in Nike country so maybe this is some great marketing deal between Nike and the cloud people 😉

Take time to look up, who knows what you will see!

Drum roll please;-) I will now reveal the secret sauce behind the “In Anticipation…” images. Just kidding…hopefully you had some fun trying to figure out what was going on.

The studio lighting and setup is as shown in the figure below:

Images “Anticipation of Spring”:

1) Two images overlaid. First image shot with a piece of textured glass between the camera and all of the flowers. The shutter speed was 1/4sec so the glass could be moved vertically while the shutter was open. Second image shot without the glass. The two images were merged into one using the in camera overlay function – being careful to keep the stamen of the front flower strong enough to serve as a focal point.

2) Single image with glass between first tulip and the two other tulips. Glass moved during the exposure in an obtuse angle.

3) Two images overlaid. First image shot with glass between the first tulip and all the others. The glass was moved in a small circular pattern in this case. The second image was shot without the glass, defocused and exposed +1-2 EV. The two  images were then merged with the in camera overlay function.

4) Two images overlaid. First image shot straight, no glass, etc. Second image defocused and overexposed +1-2 EV. Merged in camera again.

5) Just a simple, single swipe at 1/4 sec.

Images “More Anticipation”

1) Two images overlaid. First images shot straight, no glass, etc. Second image defocused and overexposed +1-2 EV. Merged in camera again.

2) Same as #2 above.

3) Two images overlaid. First image shot with front flower in focus and background flower out of focus. Second images shot with the background flower in focus and foreground flower out of  focus – f3 used for both. The two images were then merged with the in camera overlay function.

4) Simple 9 shot multiple exposure of a tulip while panning to the right.

5) Single shot of three tulips shot through a stationary piece of texture glass (like you see on a shower door).