Lily of the Valley
We have had Lily of the Valley growing in our front yard for as long as I can remember and for just as long I have made mental notes to shoot them. I finally got around to it this week.I will often sit on my back steps, camera next to me, and watch whatever is going on. One thing I will do during this time is challenge myself to find compositions without getting off the steps; I don't often come away with much but it is a creativity building exercise. This past Sunday afternoon I found myself taking the bold step of sitting on the front porch! I have always wanted to travel.... 😉
After watching a rabbit and a few birds I looked around for something interesting to shoot. That's when I saw this little Lily of the Valley plant nestled among the big, green leaves. I liked the way they appeared to be peeking out of a hiding spot to see if it was safe to come out, with the one big leaf acting like a roof. The result was image #1. There were a few other reasonably good compositions from this exercise but I wanted to get closer. There was a slight breeze and the front of the house gets very little sunlight and since I was handholding, the ISO got bumped up to 1600 in order to get a shutter speed I was comfortable with and high enough to stop any movement of the flower.
The next afternoon I spent my lunch hour (I am working from home) looking to improve on the previous days' shoot. This time I was shooting macro and came armed with a tripod, extension tube and wired shutter release. It was a bit windier than the previous day so I was set at ISO 200 just to get a little more speed to stop the movement of the flowers; camera shake wasn't going to be a problem.
Images #2 thru #4 are the results of that macro shoot. Using a tripod for macro work in the field is great but can be a bit of a burden. When you are shooting macro, focus is often done by moving the camera but with the tripod you can't do that - unless, of course, you have a geared head that moves.
I am happy with the images, as a whole, and learned a lot from the experience. The next chance I get, I will be out front trying to get even closer and refining the compositions. I would love to get a frame-filling image of the inside of a flower; that is going to take a bit of ingenuity!
For further reading on my adventures in macrophotography, check out a couple of my previous blog posts: Still-Life Macro Photography with the Vello Macrofier and Product Review: Vello Macrofier for Canon EOS (UPDATED!)
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All photos are copyright Joseph S. Valencia All Rights Reserved They may not be used in any way without express written permission of the photographer. If you wish to use any of the photos you may contact the photographer at valencia32photo@gmail.com
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