Beauty in a Parking Lot
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
Roses
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." - William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
I was in the parking lot of a local supermarket the other day waiting for my wife to finish her shopping. I was parked next to a "divider" with various bushes in it; among the bushes I found the beauties. I will freely admit that I am not very knowledgeable about plants and flowers but concensus seems to be that these are hybrid tea roses - specifically
Adolf Horstmann.
As is often the case, the first thing I did was take out my phone and fire off a few images. The camera has a macro-mode so I used that and got in close. The first image shown here is from the phone, edited using Lightroom for Mobile on my Samsung tablet. I am always impressed by how good the images are coming from the phone, I wouldn't want to make a large print but they are nice for sharing online.
The rest of the images were made with my DSLR, as listed in the section below.
I quickly set up the tripod, attached my remote release, and mounted the camera. Quickly was key; one of the biggest obstacles in flower photography is wind and I could feel a slight breeze starting to blow. The closer you get to your subject, the more pronounced the problem. Of course, one way to combat movement is with a fast shutter speed but it was a cloudy, late afternoon and there was a lot of dark green to contend with. I don't like boosting my ISO beyond 400 and even that is a last resort. This meant working quickly, while at the same time being patient - sometimes having to wait a while for the wind to stop.
“We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.” – Dale Carnegie
I ended up with about a dozen different images of three (3) different blossoms; not bad considering I was leaning against my car and didn't move more than about five (5) feet the whole time. It is amazing what you can find if you just take the time to stop and smell the roses. 😃
I'm sure most of us see the plants growing in, and around, parking lots but how many actually stop to look at them? Do we notice but not really
see them? What is the most unusual place that you have made images of flowers? What is the most unusual place you have made
any image? I would love to hear your story in the comments below.
You can see more images from this photo session by visiting my Instagram -
@Valencia32Photo.
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Technical information:
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i (crop sensor - 1.6 factor)
Lenses: Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Tripod: MeFOTO Roadtrip Classic
ISO 100
All focal lengths are as-recorded - the full-frame equivalent in parenthesis.
Shutter tripped with wired shutter release.
Aperture-priority was used for all exposures used in this post
Information in parenthesis after exposure settings indicate "exposure compensation" setting, if used
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