by successfulbob | Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, macro, photography education, photography gear
“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.” Georgia O’Keeffe
In the desert southwest the smallest of flowers dot the landscape at certain times of year. I agree with Georgia that sharing the world that many pass by is a cool thing… These particular flowers can easily go by unnoticed because of tiny size. These flowers are about the size of my thumbnail.
Tiny desert flower bloom
To capture a flower this size takes a little thought and manipulation. This was captured with the Lumix GH4 and 35-100mm 2.8 Vario lens with 26 mm of extension tubes from Neewer Technologies (get two sets they are very inexpensive and you can magnify even more using the technique below). When you have that much extension Depth of Field is extremely shallow. In order to get the buds and the first flower in total focus to share the miniscule detail I added a tripod and the technique of focus stacking. I focused on the bud in the foreground and made an exposure, changed focus to the bud a little further into the image followed by multiple captures across the surface of the flower. These exposures were taken into Adobe Photoshop and blended together using Photo Merge. When this process is used Photoshop will stack the images and blend together the sharpest parts of the image giving an increased DOF.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photography education
There’s a new inductee into (onto??) the Sound Bites Grill Wall of Fame.
Renee Patrick has a marvelous voice. She was performing with the Steve Sandner Jazz Trio as a guest during Jazz and Juice that has been a Sound Bites Sunday evening staple for a while now.
Renee live on stage followed by an artistic treatment…
Original image captured with the Lumix GH4 1/25th sec f3.2 ISO 1600. The lens is one of my favorites for capturing individual artists on stage the Lumix Vario f2.8. A better camera setting would have been ISO 3200 at f2.8 to give me a bit more sharpness although I do like the movement captured here with her hand slightly blurry… With those settings I would also set the exposure compensation down about 2/3rds to a stop to make sure to not loose the highlights in the LED stage lighting.
Jazz and Juice is Live Jazz with 1/2 price bottles of wine with dinner. My wife Holly and I enjoy catching the Jazz music, good food and a great price on the wine!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix FZ 1000, Lumix Lounge, photography, wildlife photography
GO BIG OR GO HOME!
Oh wait. I’m a little carried away there… But, one technique for making an interesting photograph is to take a very small subject and fill the frame with it. This flower is about the size of a fingernail. Using the Lumix FZ-1000 I was able to bring this tiny subject forward. While I don’t often recommend bulls-eye composition I think it works in this case because of the bud in the lower left corner and the leaf in the upper right hand corner. The flower dominates but the additional subjects in the frame give you eye something else to look at and turns it into more modified diagonal composition.
The bud is barely the size of my pinky fingernail & the flower is just a bit bigger than my thumb. Settings 432mm Exposure 1/5000 sec to help freeze the flower in the breeze, f5.6, ISO 800
Constantly working and playing when not on a commissioned job. Without practice and really knowing your gear it’s difficult to grow as a photographer. Golfers are constantly trying to ‘find the groove’ and practice is a huge part of their ability to succeed.
When is the last time you tired something new?
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art photography, landscape photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, people photography, photography, photography education, photography gear
Ocotillo.
That’s not a word you hear everyday… Even if you live in the Southwest where these very interesting cactus reside. Ocotillo are long stalks that most of the year look like they are a bit worse for wear and have moved on past the living stage.
BUT, when nature’s green paint brush, AKA rain, moves through the area at the right time of year these seemingly greyish brown sticks with thorns turn green and put on a show with bright crimson blooms.
Kinda gives you hope when you see this process. And that’s where a phrase you hear even less, the name of this post, Dance of the Ocotillo. Which I think is easier to say than Dance of the Fouquieria splendens which is it’s binomial name.
My model friend Pash Galbavy said she really enjoys these plants and wanted to be photographed with them when in bloom. “Was I game to get up and hike into the wild before the sun chose to make an appearance?” “Sure,” I said. “Always up for a challenge and creating some art.”
Pash made individual dance moves around the cactus. Camera was mounted on a tripod and multiple exposures were blended together using Layers and Masks in Adobe’s Photoshop.
This is an alternate version I enjoy even more created using multiple NIK filters. Included in the mix were Pro Contrast, Glamour Glow, Sepia Toning, Edge Efx and Film Noise.
I used the Lumix GH4 with the Vario 12-35mm f2.8 lens mounted on a tripod. I wanted to capture motion on each movement but I couldn’t get the shutter speed slow enough without some extra help. Camera settings 19mm, 2 sec, f22 ISO 200 manual mode.
Getting the shutter speed this slow required the help of a 2 stop neutral density filter. I had just received a set of very inexpensive filters from Neewer because I wanted to experiment with them for water effects. The kit is less than 25 bucks and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality. I just happened to throw them in my kit before this shoot… Who knew??
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – If you want to talk about someone dedicated to her art here is a photo of Pash dressed in clothing more appropriate to the per-dawn temperature!
Pash dressed for the 47 degree pre-dawn temps we were working in.
PPS – Making purchases on Amazon and through other links helps support the education on the Successful-Photographer web site… TIA.
by successfulbob | Lumix FZ 1000, Lumix Lounge, marketing, photography education, photography marketing
Sedona has had a very wet (for us) spring and the result has been lots of flowers flourishing, in the wild and in the gardens. As you may remember I write a column for the local monthly paper, The Villager, to help keep my name out there. It’s called Photographer’s Corner and I offer tips on making better images. Usually the tips are pretty simple from a pro’s point of view but they are appreciated by the general public.
It was nice while on my Meals on Wheels route to have the Lumix FZ 1000 on hand to grab some flower photos as I saw them. Being able to zoom to 400mm made it possible to shoot from the car through an open window during the rain. (make sure you turn the car off to cut down the vibration) Here’s one of an Iris standing tall on an overcast day which gave good detail.
Straight capture for the article illustrating the concept of ‘Filling the Frame’. Camera settings 1/320 sec F4.0 ISO 160
Once I had the image in the computer I had to play just to see what I could see…
Here’s another version. Always try something new when I have time.
The images were created blending a photo of a wall of small leaves and a photo of some dead leaves raked into a pile. Textures can come from a myriad of places and subjects. Thought I’d keep these textures organic in keeping with the flower.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
