My family & I ventured to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore last weekend. This was my fourth trip there and likely the best. I've been there twice over Labor Day weekend and once over the Fourth of July. But, this time, we had a fair amount of beautiful spring flowers, pleasant temperatures and not very many mosquitoes (woo hoo!).
And, wonderfully, I got to see one of those "things" that's been on my life list - a pink lady slipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule). We saw a couple down one trail and were excited. On Sunday, we hiked to Mosquito Beach and saw dozens of these beautiful, delicate flowers.
Congrats on getting to check something off your list! Seeing one of these is still on mine.
You did well to manage what looked like difficult lighting to deal with, mainly keeping any shadows off the blossom. Better lighting would have been ideal, but this is still a nice capture nonetheless.
I remember the location from last years trip. It was my first experience with them as well. There were also quite a few of them on the Miners Beach road. Before the turnoff for Miners Falls you cross a bridge with parking space on the right for one car. A trail leads back into the woods to a lake and I found quite a few of them on this trail. It's a nice shot considering the light.
A friend of mine owns some property in southern Ohio which is host to numerous pink lady's slippers so I've been lucky enough to be able to photograph these flowers on a couple of occasions. Agreed, even lighting would be more flattering, but you do what you can with what you've got.
Posted by Brian Vance on June 10, 2010 at 11:36 AM
Nice capture of a gorgeous flower! If you had a diffuser in your bag, this would've been a good time to use it to even out the light some and avoid the dark shadow just below the flower. Nicely composed and the DOF is spot on.
Discussion
6 repliesAnd, wonderfully, I got to see one of those "things" that's been on my life list - a pink lady slipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule). We saw a couple down one trail and were excited. On Sunday, we hiked to Mosquito Beach and saw dozens of these beautiful, delicate flowers.
Pentax K20D, ISO200, f/8, 1/125", Pentax 50-135 zoom @ 135...
Enjoy,
Tim!
I wish it had been cloudy as the harsh sun is not doing you any favors, especially the bright background.
You did well to manage what looked like difficult lighting to deal with, mainly keeping any shadows off the blossom. Better lighting would have been ideal, but this is still a nice capture nonetheless.