It's very hard for me to pass up a chance to photograph one of Minnesota's favorite and iconic wild orchids.
These were along the edge of a bog at the side of an abandoned logging road about 10 miles outside Ely, and while the orchids themselves did not have their feet in water, our feet sure were.
This was a grab shot, more or less, before I set up the tripod and began the "serious" work. I did make sure the blooms were parallel to the sensor for a good focus plane, and had to wait for the wind to die on this windy day at the same time as the sun went in on this partly cloudy day. After I said goodbye to the day's excursion client and downloaded everything, I ended up liking this image better than the so-called serious work.
It just goes that way sometimes.
Canon 30D, Canon 100 macro, iso400, 1/640 at f5.6, handheld
Edit: Once again I see this imaged "died" a little bit after posting, though it popped very nicely on my monitor. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Oh well.
Nice to see you posting here Steve! Strong image here. The flowers are well isolated and yet the background gives this a sense of open space that I seldom see with floral images. All in all, an effective and unique take on our state flower. I haven't seen any Showy Ladyslippers this year, only pink. Interesting to hear that your this was your first impression of the scene. Probably about half of the time, I prefer the first composition that I come up with when working a scene. I guess the lesson is that it's good to take even first impressions seriously on some level. I agree with you that this web file could use a bit more contrast, but so it goes. I'm not sure why it would change when saving for the web.
Posted by Chuck Beatty on July 15, 2008 at 3:11 PM
Very nice capture of some beautiful flowers, Steve. As for the color change, did you use sRBG IEC61966-2.1 as your color space? If not, try reposting with it and see if it makes a difference.
Discussion
6 repliesThese were along the edge of a bog at the side of an abandoned logging road about 10 miles outside Ely, and while the orchids themselves did not have their feet in water, our feet sure were.
This was a grab shot, more or less, before I set up the tripod and began the "serious" work. I did make sure the blooms were parallel to the sensor for a good focus plane, and had to wait for the wind to die on this windy day at the same time as the sun went in on this partly cloudy day. After I said goodbye to the day's excursion client and downloaded everything, I ended up liking this image better than the so-called serious work.
It just goes that way sometimes.
Canon 30D, Canon 100 macro, iso400, 1/640 at f5.6, handheld
Edit: Once again I see this imaged "died" a little bit after posting, though it popped very nicely on my monitor. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Oh well.
No biggie.
Few things compare to getting a real winner from what you thought was just a grab shot.