Finally spring wildflowers are kicking into gear around here. Yesterday I ventured out with an idea in my head of doing something a bit different this year. It seems as if I go through this every year, wanting to create something a bit different than last season on the same flowers. I suppose I use it to push myself creatively and to not get in a rut of photographing things the same way over and over. Sometimes I go through this type of process where I have a very basic idea, and then it seems like a treasure hunt in attempt to find a subject that fits the idea like a missing piece of a puzzle.
Lone Bloodroot and sunlight
Well, this year the idea came before actually applying it to a subject. I have been learning slowly what works and what doesn’t using my 24mm f1.4 lens wide open. I simply love this lens. Using f1.4 seems to work well if you have a fairly isolated subject in the context of its larger environment. That seems rather common sense I suppose – isolate your subject. I found it harder to accomplish in practice because at 24 mm you are taking in a lot of environment. For wildflowers, you typically get around this by using longer focal length lenses and actually looking for backgrounds that are far away from the flower. You make a tight portrait of a flower, or just use a wide angle and a lot of depth of field for flowers in a landscape. My idea was going in the opposite direction of both of those things.
Once I had a subject, I wanted to then use some textures in post to accent the out of focus background. Now I just needed a subject that worked into this basic concept. It didn’t really matter what it was, but it had to work into that basic framework.
I encountered quite a few lone flowers, but they just had too many other objects around them that would compete in the scene. It might be a dominant tree that is too close, other surrounding flowers or other plants, or distracting angular lines in the background – all were working against the idea I had.
Finally I came upon this bloodroot which was in great condition, fully opened up to the sun, no large objects around, it showed potential. My initial reaction to a scene like this is typically thinking about how big of a diffuser I need to soften the light on the flower and the background. But if I diffuse the flower, at 24mm, I need a pretty darn big diffuser … aka. otherwise called clouds! 🙂 . I had the bonus of a nice shadow from the petals that added a contrast element to draw attention. So I didn’t want to diffuse that out and just went with the scene as is waiting for light cloud cover .
The next thing I realized is that … wow, I need to get really low to the ground to photograph this flower with a 24mm lens. Despite my tripod going low, it wasn’t low enough. So the camera came off the tripod and my ear is now in the leaves while I was on my side trying to compose this thing. Good thing there weren’t many slugs around. I would hate to have one crawl out of my ear at Easter dinner. That would be tough to explain.
To wrap this up, I came home with a composition I could work with. It had the elements I was after with an isolated subject, complimentary background and surroundings. I worked in some textures as I had planned on doing. So what you see here is what I ended up with. I rather like the end result. It is certainly unique to anything else I have done before with spring wildflowers. It is something I will attempt again as long as I can find those particular pieces for the puzzle. This is part of the creative process that I find most rewarding … coming up with a basic idea, and then finding the conditions suitable enough to execute it in the field. I have often wondered if this is what it is like to write music.
Great post and beautiful photo, Mark. I really like your work with textures a lot. And f/1.4 handheld, man, you have hands from steel 🙂
Hey Tomas, thanks. Don’t be too impressed. Shutter speed was 1/8000 sec on this one at f1.4. I think I could have had a ton of caffeine, a genetic nervous twitch, and wind blowing and still get a sharp shot. 🙂
Love the wide and wide open look – simplicity and isolation, even at 24mm. Excellent image – I can see why you love the lens.
Thank you for stopping by Tom and for the comment.
Hi David, very little texture is actually on the flower except in the very last layer I applied. It is quite subtle in the area of the flower. I really didn’t want to obscure any details there.
By the way, I meant to inquire, I couldn’t really tell if you applied the texture to the flower also, or not…
Great post relating your slug-ear process. Often nature photographers get strange looks at dinner anyway. So that might not be anything new, but your image is. I’m not sure about it yet, but it certainly is different, sort of mixed-media in a way. A slug coming out of your ear certainly would prove you to be a genuine nature lover and a committed photographer.
So often photographers talk about working from an idea or concept, but rarely do they break down that process. Thanks for taking us from the glimmer of idea all the way through to realization. The result is beautiful. I have already mentioned what a fan I am of your use of texture. This picture most certainly would have been impressive without that extra touch, but the textures take this to that elusive next step making it uniquely your vision.
Well, I hope I was able to explain it well enough Anita. Sometimes the process isn’t even clear to me how certain things come up. But in this particular case, I definitely had the idea before the final image came to be. I do like the image without the texture as well, and may also put that version in my gallery. It is also quite unique just because of the wide angle, shallow DOF. I appreciate the feedback Anita and your continued support.
I like these types of images that are beyond the ordinary. I’ve been shooting a few wildflowers myself the last few weeks and I can totally relate to laying down on the forest floor to get a decent prospective. The slug out your ear kinda freaked me out! I seen something like that in a movie once.
I really like these textures you incorporate once in awhile Mark, I’ve bookmarked a couple of sights that offer some free downloads of textured backgrounds, think I might have to play around with it a bit myself, the results are truly unique. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thanks Brad. I enjoy making them a bit different. After shooting flowers for so long, I suppose it is natural to yearn for a different approach. Playing with textures can be fun. Thanks.
Mark, that is a great shot. I love the texture that you’ve applied. Also, I would love to hear your explanation of the slug coming out of the ear. I suppose your guests might think that you have problems with personal hygiene. 🙂
Fortunately I did not have to come up with an explanation Paul. 🙂 Thanks for the feedback.
@ Marco, thanks very much.
@ Earl, I hear ya, but then again, I probably limited myself quite extensively to a very particular situation, perhaps not all photos need to worry about all those variables? Thanks, I am glad you enjoyed this one. Fortunately at f1.4, it lets in A LOT of light, so my shutter speed was quite high and no breath holding was needed. 🙂
Mark, I really enjoyed reading your creative thought process and steps in getting the shot you envisioned. It’s amazing to think that photos get made at all when you consider all the variables that go into that click of the shutter.
The result speaks for itself, beautiful. Excellent skill placing that very narrow DOF at just the right point. Getting this particular photo must have been akin to a sniper making that long shot…breath control and all. The textures work wonderfully…fine art my friend!
Oh…a slug crawling out of an ear, now there’s a photo…where’s my camera? 🙂
Mark this is amazing and inspiring, thanks for sharing!
And it’s a great shot, Mark. Did you add a texture? I may have to steal this technique. Warm weather might come to New York this week!
Thanks Ken. Yes, I did add multiple textures to this. Four of them to be exact, each with varying degrees of opacity and masking. Hopefully the warm weather will last for you. We have had about 2 days of relief from the rain, but it is back again today throughout this week.