Trillium and bark
I never understood why this wildflower is labeled “purple” – I am thinking whoever named it had some color issues. Similar to normal large-flowered white trillium, I have photographed this species so much that it is difficult to think up some new way to portray them. (purple trillium photos)
In this latest series of images, I tried to work on the theme of how these wildflowers stand up tall (probably where the latin name comes from) with the towering trees of this Michigan woodland. It shows a bit of the environment they grow in, and keeps a common graphical theme to the photograph (or so I hope). Finding groups of flowers without a lot of other clutter around takes some patience. Then the setting has to work well with the surrounding trees, no wind, and no harsh lighting. Fortunately all of these things seem to come together for a few images.
In the first one here, I liked the way the bark, flower bundle, and sun all line up. For the second, I was working on a very steep hillside with my right angle finder attached to get the camera low enough to the ground and pointed upward. I like the perspective – how the flowers and the trees both seem to be towering – the bug’s eye view.
I hope you enjoy them.
Red Trillium and Towers
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Trillium a bit different
You may recall me writing about photographing trilliums, and how it can be difficult coming up with a new way to look at them. A few years back now, fellow photographer Howard Grill put forth the trillium challenge as he was also experiencing the same blocks on trying new things. For sure there are probably infinite ways of processing images these days, and I really don’t like going down a different processing path “just because.” It has to feel right. So here I put forth a couple of attempts at trillium this year. They are much earlier, just like the bloodroot. In fact, I rarely see bloodroot and trillium blooming at the same time around here – and this year we have the tail end of bloodroot and the start of trillium overlapping.
The first one here is largely the result of a Lightroom preset. This image was intentionally made a bit “dreamy” by photographing this particular flower through a lot of other foilage. I ended up with a light green soft blur around the trillium. But even though that took on a different feel, this preset that desaturated much of that surrounding blur just seemed like a nice fit.
Trillium standing tall
The second one here is just a single flower, nothing too special – but it was in such great condition, and standing all alone in front of the base of a tree, I couldn’t resist getting some shots of it. Topaz Detail really accented the lines in the petals and the leaves, and I used some layers in Photoshop to further give it a bit more character. I like the overall feel to the final image.
Finally, sometimes it is the leaves that make a flower image special. With trillium, I often look for flowers that have leaves that can be used as part of the composition. This particular one had leaves sticking out almost in a single plane, yet with wavy ridges that led right to the bloom. Obviously shallow DOF, but just enough to let you know what’s going on and where I want your eyes to flow to.
Offset trillium
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Bloodroot Duo
This year Spring seems to be coming through like a freight train. Bloodroot was peaking at this time last year, and now much of it is already gone. White trillium that normally hits peak around Mother’s Day is already up and will likely peak within a few days.
Looks like we are running about 3 weeks early this year. I may try to get some of the bloodroot that is left, but I still have bloodroot images from last year I haven’t processed, so at least I have a backup. :-)
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Morrisonite hillsides
I have finally spent some time catching up on some of my rock abstracts. This time I have added some Morrisonite photos to my gallery. Morrisonite is a particular type of jasper found in Oregon’s Owyhee desert. The story has it that it was originally on the property of an old hermit, James Morison back in the late 1940s. Once the colorful jasper became public knowledge, his land was flooded by rockhounds, commercial interests, and trespassers until ultimately it took blasting and heavy equipment to get to the jasper that was left.
I read no one knew what happened to James Morison, he sort of just disappeared. I find it fascinating that my photographs of today are somehow connected to this old hermit in the hills of Oregon who lived over 60 years ago. The area where this jasper is found is reported to be quite rugged. I saw a rugged landscape in this image, and the blood red color symbolic of how man can rip at this planet’s natural treasures.
This image was captured wet, using a Nikon D700, 200 mm f4 macro lens, and cross-polarized Nikon R1C1 macro flashes to eliminate reflections and glare. Post processing in Adobe Lightroom 2 and Adobe Photoshop CS3. More pictures of Morrisonite and other abstract macro landscapes can be found in my gallery.
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