Okay, More Flowers.....

I noticed these fuzzy blooms in one of Deborah's hanging baskets this morning.  I came inside to get a camera to shoot them and picked up the D70.  I have found myself doing more with it lately. Anyway, it had the Nikkor 28f2.8 lens on it.  I started to swap it for the Macro zoom and decided to bring both lenses along.

When I walked up to the basket, I noticed the way the back lighting not only illuminated the red fuzzies, but also the leaves in the background.  I thought it might be neat to show some background, so I shot with the 28.  It focuses really close, so I wa able to get the blooms decent size in my frame. The 28 had enough depth of field to keep the background items sharp enough to tell what they are without being too distracting. The 15 would have been too distinct. Anyway, I like the result.

No more flowers for a while.  I have borrowed a Nikon SB 800 from Gary Harmon, and will be playing with it's wireless capabilities. I will write about that next time.

Flowers and Flash

The sunflowers from my last post were shot on a cloudy day. As a rule, cloudy days are better for shooting flowers. The bright sun and shadows of a sunny day can sometimes be detrimental to your efforts,  On sunny days I usually use the sun as a back light, showing off the detail in blooms and leaves. Back light can really ad a bit of drama to your images. The photo below shows the use of back lighting.

For the top image I wanted to get the sun in the photo, make it really dramatic. I had brought along my old D70 body for just this photo.  To get the correct exposure for the sun and sky, I had to really crank up my exposure.  The photo was shot at 1/2500 second and f11.  The sky was great, but the flowers in the foreground were way too dark.  There is a fluke in the design of the D70.  The normal top sync speed with a flash is 1/250 second.  Due to the design flaw, you can set the camera to manual, hook up a flash with a sync cord(not having the flash directly on the camera's hot shoe) and shoot at whatever shutter speed you want.

I had the flash on a long cord, and held it to the left of the camera, coming in at an angle. Got the sky, and the big bloom in the foreground is dramatically highlighted.

Flash is a lot more fun when used creatively.

Sunflowers

I wanted to shoot some sunflowers this year and had a hard time finding a field. Deborah had been riding one afternoon and told me she had found a field, and by the time I got to them ,they were dead.

Yesterday I was on the way to Columbus to see my Mom, and discovered this huge field in Taylor County.

They were showing their age, but I still managed to get some interesting shots. These are not the only flowers I have done recently. Last week I photographed wild flowers. I had a bright sunny day for them.  Yesterday morning was really overcast when I did the sunflowers.  Later I will shot you some of the wildflowers.

Back On The Sidelines

Okay, I am finally posting again.  It has been almost three months, and I have been busy.  But
not so busy that I have an excuse for not posting.  I will do better. I have a few pictures to share with y'all, and will be back on schedule next week.

Football season is back, and last night was my first time back to the sidelines with the 300f2.8 since my surgery. I have been in the gym regularly, so I ditched the monopod and hand-held last night. No problem.
So much easier to move than with that stick. I convinced myself last year that at my advanced age I should be takin' it easy. Shoulda just hit the weights.

Anyway, last night was Jones County at Warner Robins, a 7pm game start. Ooops, I was late. Walked onto the sidelines just after the kickoff. It had been over 50 years since these teams last played.  A bit of history, if you will.

The Georgia National Fair has kicked off another year. Great photo ops, and check out the photo competition.

See ya next week.