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Archive 2013 · The world of flowers

  
 
Camperjim
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · The world of flowers


Lately I have been shooting mostly flowers. By their nature flowers are pretty, sort of like a sunset. When shooting a sunset it is often difficult to move past the colors and show the viewer something more interesting. What I am trying to do with flower photography is to move beyond just pretty flowers. I am trying to bring some sort of fresh interpretation. I am trying to bring the viewer into a different world...maybe something closer to the way an insect would see flowers...up close and personal.

I have three examples the first is a pretty straight forward picture of a flower...pretty but to my mind nothing special. The second and third pictures are closer to what I am trying to accomplish. Am I moving in a direction that gives a better feeling of these flowers?

A few weeks ago I started a webpage. If you are interested in seeing some of attempts, the opening slide show features my recent work which is almost entirely flowers. This project has been a lot more difficult than I thought. I would appreciate any comments especially comments that might point me in a new direction.

www.specialplacesphoto.com





Plain, old flower














Jun 05, 2013 at 08:39 PM
khwaja
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · The world of flowers


i find the photos interesting. while i cannot judge the colours (PC died) i find the post processing in the 2nd photo distracting.


Jun 05, 2013 at 09:00 PM
Bob Jarman
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · The world of flowers


Jim,

#2 reminds me of 'Slot Canyon' (?) images, I like the non-routine approach.

#3 - the color strikes me as flat and blah.

Good luck with your website, enjoyed the images I quickly glanced at - appreciate if you'd PM your thoughts on Zenfolio?

Thanks,

Bob



Jun 06, 2013 at 07:19 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · The world of flowers


Diggin' the layers of color/light in #2 ... maybe soften the main petals/pistils a touch to give the whole image a slightly softer vibe (or not). As is, I'm a bit torn with a preference/stronger interest toward the background more than foreground.


Jun 06, 2013 at 09:44 AM
Camperjim
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · The world of flowers


Kent (RustyBug), I usually work to get as much depth of field as possible with closeups, but I think you are correct. This would look better with more sharpness in the foreground and a slightly blurred background. Overall I am still struggling with closeup/macros. Most are done in the field and I usually cannot get a tripod where I need it. The gardeners seem to object when I plant a tripod in the flower beds. In any case I struggle to maintain focus and have often don't pay attention to the background or composition. My failure rate is pretty high and the images I think are good usually still have issues.


Jun 06, 2013 at 10:26 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · The world of flowers


Camperjim wrote:
The gardeners seem to object when I plant a tripod in the flower beds.


I hear ya @ challenges come in a multitude of flavors ...



Jun 06, 2013 at 10:33 AM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · The world of flowers


It's a very big challenge to make a different slant on flowers. As a subject they've been done so many ways by so many talented folks. Yes, the second moves further from the ordinary. The third moves back somewhat towards the macro end of literal. Good luck with finding a personal vision for such a heavily mined subject. It's a very difficult but potentially rewarding self-assignment.

A while back Strad did an extensive series of flowers rendered in black and white. Here are a couple of later images in the series I was able to find, although other examples in his series were even better to my eyes:

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1167620/0

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1161734/0#11083164



Jun 06, 2013 at 05:31 PM
Camperjim
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · The world of flowers


Aunti..
I feel I am moving past the basics of using a camera and am looking more and more towards finding my own interpretations and style. Yes, flowers have been done by lots of talented photographers and doing something unique is hard. I have found the same issue with landscapes. I walked back and forth along the rim of Bryce canyon for hours on a couple of different days and hardly took any pictures. It is one of those places where it is all but impossible to take a bad picture and even harder to do something unique and special.

But isn't photography all about looking at the world and capturing something special? Otherwise, we can stop shooting and just look at what the experts have already posted on the internet.




Jun 06, 2013 at 08:45 PM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · The world of flowers


Exactly. You've chosen a difficult task. Most rewarding tasks are difficult. If they were easy, everyone would do them. I am very curious to see your take on flowers. Good luck!


Jun 06, 2013 at 10:48 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · The world of flowers


+1 @ the good stuff doesn't get handed to us on a silver platter ... it arrives on silver halide.


Jun 06, 2013 at 11:10 PM
Camperjim
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · The world of flowers


AuntiPode wrote:
Exactly. You've chosen a difficult task. Most rewarding tasks are difficult. If they were easy, everyone would do them. I am very curious to see your take on flowers. Good luck!


Actually I sometimes think that developing a unique style is not at all difficult..it is more innate than developed. I rarely get a chance to shoot with others, but last Fall three of us shot the same small garden for a couple of hours. We basically even shot the same plants and same flowers. The differences were remarkable. After looking at a few images, we could look at new images and easily identify the individual photographer based on a quick glance. So maybe it is not the style that is difficult, but trying to apply that style to communicating something to the viewer.

I am not a gardener. I don't know or care about the names of plants, or how to grow them or where they are found. For me shooting a whole plant, or a whole flower or showing the flower in the environment is not important. Instead I try to capture a closer more intimate look at the world of the individual flowers. I thought about calling this a bug's eye view, but found that term is usually used to mean shooting from down low and looking up at the flowers. I rarely shoot from that point of view.

From time to time, I will post some additional flower images and I have dumped a pile of them on my webpage. I tend to suffer from a lack of objectivity. I always seem to expend a great deal of energy and work into my photography. I am not sure how that happens when I am just strolling around a garden taking pictures, but I suppose I have a character flaw that means I make a big deal of what should be easy. In any case after all that work, I get a few decent images and because I worked for them I tend to believe they are going to be liked by others.



Jun 07, 2013 at 06:34 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · The world of flowers


Jim,

"Nectar View" is what I get from your imagery, as many could be from the perspective of the bee flying past the cavernous opening formed by the petals in search of their own veins of golden goodness and streams of life giving sustenance. It's a mining operation, on a much more intimate scale.

Imo, you seem to strive for the viewpoint at what it looks like from the "little miner's view" once they are inside the mine, with their target vein(s) in sight.

That being said, you are shooting in a manner that "amplifies" the technical challenges @ dof/diffraction/motion blur ... probably something that gets lost on many folks @ "how much work" is involved to contend with such amplified challenges.

And yes, I can spot / have come to expect a certain look/vibe from your images ... "little miner" or "nectar" ... that seems to come with a certain diffusion (diffraction effects maybe). At any regard, just a note to let you know the "work" isn't unrecognized.

Edited on Jun 07, 2013 at 09:06 AM · View previous versions



Jun 07, 2013 at 08:22 AM
Camperjim
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · The world of flowers


Now I just need to get a fiber optic camera so I can get the view from inside the flower of the bee passing by.


Jun 07, 2013 at 08:56 AM





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