Photographing Wildflowers I reviewed some wildflower scenics from my August, 2011, Olympic National Park shoots and was once again reminded of the old carpenter maxim “measure twice, cut once”. The low cost of shooting digital removes the cost barrier to shooting, shooting, shooting. Why not make dozens of shots? Surely some will succeed. I get […]
Tilt and Telephoto: Tools for Summer Wildflowers ___ 2010/06
Mt. Rainier National Park. A conventional 24mm could capture this shot (maybe), but seeing it is far easier with the TS-E. With the conventional 24mm, the depth-of-field preview button darkens the viewfinder too much; an alternative, an in-camera (digital) test shot evaluation, is time consuming. Near-to-far focus that’s not attainable with a conventional short telephoto […]
Photo Tip: Full-frame Bokeh __ 05/2008
APS-sized sensors for wildlife are touted for their ability to extend the reach of telephoto lenses, making, in the case of APS-C (e.g. 1.6x multiplier for Canon 40D), a 300mm lens into a 480mm equivalent. This is a enormous asset for hard to reach wildlife, or for trailside flower photography when you can’t step off […]
Tutorial: Floral Portrait Conundrum ___ 07/2007
When shooting wildflower or floral portraits — pictures of single flowers or small groups of flowers — it’s often difficult to achieve both sharpness in the flower(s) and pleasing, poster-like, out-of-focus backgrounds. In the past I ususally went for the pleasing background, picking the most important floral part, like the stigma or edge of a […]
Paradise Park, Mt. Rainier National Park
Wildflowers at Paradise, Mt. Rainier. Mid-August, 2000. “Gardens of Eden . . . . filled knee-deep with fresh, lovely flowers of every hue, the most luxuriant and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain-top wanderings.” -John Muir, writing about a 1888 visit to Paradise Park and […]
Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground, Mt. Rainier National Park
Wildflowers and mirror ponds at Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground. Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground is a huge bench with mirror ponds and an expansive sub-alpine meadow. Several ponds reflect the Mountain, including the pond made famous by the Ashel Curtis photograph. Find carpets of avalanche lily in July; densely-packed lupine in August. Most of the pictures […]