Straight Shots

Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) growing at the edge of small river, with sunlit highlights from the river water.

I love making abstract, interpretive, impressionistic images with my camera. It’s satisfying to be able to create these types of  images, straight out of the camera. They are less documentary and in some cases inspire ‘what is it?’ comments. These images emphasize colour, texture, shape and line. They convey feelings of delicacy, fragility, lightness and euphoria or spirituality. It is possible to achieve these types of images without the use of image altering computer software. All it takes is careful observation and imagination along with a good knowledge of how the camera captures images.

Here are some recent images that illustrate some techniques I like to employ. I include some tips and advice to help you produce your own interpretive images, straight from your camera.

1. Shallow depth of field- I begin by setting the lens to f4 or so (wider aperture) with the intention of selectively focusing on my subject. I scout the composition  while handholding the camera to give freedom of movement and then when I find the angle and focus point I desire I mount the camera back on a tripod for a more careful composition. This is often called ‘selective focus’ because something will be in focus while much of the subject will be rendered as out of focus colourful blobs.

Birch trees in spring. Selective focus. f 5.6 210 mm

One subject I tried this spring was a birch woodland with emerging (backlit) leaves in birch saplings nearer the camera. I was fortunate to finally notice an excellent example below me as I stood on a hillside rock outcrop. My original intention was to climb the hill and photograph emerging foliage in distant trees on a hillside. I still photographed that hillside but I spent most of my time on the hill photographing the birch tree trunks and fresh new leaves.

Birch trees in spring. Selective focus. f 5.6 320 mm

This technique also works well for flowers especially with the camera set low to the ground and a focus point set on more distant blossoms. You can even try it with super telephoto lenses!

Texas wildflowers, telephoto lens, selective focus 300 mm @ f7.1

Texas wildflowers, 80-400 @ 280 mm f8.

2. Macro lens painting- This is a technique I tried after reading a posting from US photographer and photography educator Janice Sullivan. The technique employs long exposures (5 seconds or so), the camera hand-held on colourful subjects such as garden flowers. I started the exposure on a blossom and then pointed the camera at nearby colourful displays, all in the same exposure.

Macro lens painting in a flower garden. 5 seconds @ f18, 105 mm

Macro lens painting in a flower garden. 5 seconds @ f18, 105 mm

3. Camera movement/panning- This is a tried and true technique for creating impressionistic images of subjects like woodlands. I use it extensively in spring and fall. For the images below I moved the camera up and down during a lengthy (5 second or so) exposure while I was photographing a pine woodland in fog. The vertical lines certainly suggest I should use a vertical composition but I often do this horizontally to include more Vertical lines- tree trunks. Telephotos work best but I have tried this technique with wide-angle lenses too with interesting perspective results.

Red pine woodland in morning fog- camera movement, 125 mm, 5 seconds @ f20

 

Red pine tree trunks in morning fog- camera movement, 34 mm, 3 seconds @ f20

4. Natural distortions- I often like to photograph the reflective surfaces of lakes and ponds, in spring, summer and fall, concentrating on the gentle distortions of the reflected shoreline features created by the water. In the examples below however, I was stuck in my car, waiting out a thunderstorm. I left the wipers off and decided to photograph the distorted autumn woodland through the rain-soaked windshield. I hand-held and used my 105 mm macro. Focusing on either the subject or the windshield yielded different results and these can be evaluated immediately by reviewing images in the camera monitor. That’s the beauty of digital photography- being able to see the results in real time so adjustments or refinements can be made!
5. 

   White birch tree woodland in autumn colour at Lake Laurentian Conservation area as seen through a rain-soaked windshield. 105 mm lens f 3.5

    

   

   White birch tree woodland in autumn colour at Lake Laurentian Conservation area as seen through a rain-soaked windshield. 105 mm lens f 3.5

    

Va Va Bloom!

Brenda and I are spending over a month in the Hill Country of Texas during the latter part of March through April. We planned our trip to coincide with the spring wildflower bloom. Texas wildflowers: legendary, diverse, vast expanses of colour ranging from orange, magenta, blue, yellow and red.

Roadside oak tree and bluebonnets

The rainfall patterns in fall and winter are important factors that determine the quality of the spring bloom and we are fortunate this year to have had sufficient precipitation to promise an above average bloom. I feel fortunate, especially after experiencing the brutal winter in Northern Ontario this year. Texas has been in a protracted drought in recent years and the wildflower bloom has been less than optimum these past few years, the last good year occurring in 2010, according to noted wildflower photographer Gary Regner who lives in this area. Gary’s website and blog http://www.texaswildflowerpictures.com/update.htm is a great source of information and updates for the visiting photographer.

Ranch fence and Texas paintbrush

Oak trees and Texas wildflowers- paintbrush, phlox and bluebonnets

The pictures I present at this point have been harvested from areas south of San Antonio. We are still awaiting the full bloom in the Hill Country around Austin, Johnson City and Marble Falls but patches of colour are appearing every day as March slides into April with an expectation of a mid April peak.

Texas paintbrush and bluebonnets surrounding a cactus

Diverse patches of clourful flowers

The areas south of San Antonio are flatter with pastures and farmland dominating the scene. Travelling the country roads we find flowers in the roadside and in the fields beyond. When the sky is clear I can include the blue sky. When the light is soft and overcast I try to exclude the white sky, concentrating on more intimate scenes. Focus stacking technique is sometimes necessary to extend the range of sharpness near to far in these flat landscapes.

Texas wildflowers bloom on the grounds of a country residence

Bluebonnets and paintbrush with spring trees

The traffic at times is fearsome, especially on the major highways around Austin and San Antonio but the smaller side roads are well maintained, less heavily travelled with wide shoulders for safe pull-offs. With careful planning it has been possible to use secondary routes to avoid the bumper-to-bumper traffic in and out of the big cities.

Texas paintbrush and spring trees, Somerset TX

Texas bluebonnets and oak trees, near Somerset TX

On and off the deck

 

A male ruby-throated hummingbird perches on a branch on our deck, near the nectar feeder

 

Brenda and I are about to hit the road again and I thought I had better get in a blog post before leaving for the Northwest Territories and Vancouver Island. We usually stay home for the summer, preferring to avoid the crowds, traffic and higher prices.

 

A male goldfinch forages among the goldenrods behind our lawn

Brenda enjoys her gardening and we tend a vegetable garden and milkweed patch that was finally visited by monarchs. It has been a cool summer thus far, perhaps following upon the very cold winter and its lingering effects. Blueberries were late this year but the crop was quite good in places. Nonetheless birds, small and large mammals, insects, snakes and spiders continue their seasonal rituals around our property.

 

Geranium flowers in a basket after a morning rain

During the summer I stay close to home with the camera too. Not surprisingly, if I am ready and the equipment is at hand there are photo opportunities awaiting in Brenda’s gardens, on the lawn and on the deck.

 

A moth rests on red flower petals, chilled by raindrops

Here is a collection of examples from the last couple of months. Please enjoy!

This red squirrel has mastered the art of  traversing the clothesline to venture out to a hanging seed feeder

It swiftly moves out to the seed feeder

Sheep laurel and birch near a blueberry patch behind the shed

Raindrops on fern fronds at the edge of the lawn

Swallowtail butterflies visit a patch of hawkweed I leave un-mowed on the lawn

Butterflies are attracted to Brenda’s flowers too

A patch of summer flowers photographed with camera movement during the exposure

After a bear left its ‘calling card’ on our lawn this chipmunk moved in and scavenged the seeds in the flop

A photographer’s perspective on Weeds

Following up on my last two postings on the subject of the monarch butterfly and its host plants I thought I would post some images of noxious and invasive weeds, taken over the years. In some locales these plants can be common. Often, under the right conditions, they can make nice photographic subjects. I don’t shy away from photographing invasives and noxious weeds. A weed is a flowering plant (usually) in the wrong place, such as a garden, crop or lawn. On a more sinister side, invasives such as purple loosestrife can seriously disrupt natural ecosystems like wetlands, and their control becomes more important. Photographing these plants can help draw attention to the ecological issues. Agriculture has classified plants like common milkweed as noxious, giving them special status for control programs. Unfortunately there can be some collateral damage, such as loss in monarch butterfly numbers. As always, with complex problems such as these, there are no simple answers.

Here are some pictures of noxious weeds (classified usually by state or province or country) as well as some invasive plants.

Sunrise and Queen Annes lace flower. (Pennsylvania)

Purple loosestrife is pretty but deadly to wetland ecosystems. The infestation in North America has necessitated the use of specific insect controls- beetles and weevils that feed only on this plant, but are themselves non-native.

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) in an Ontario wetland.

Orange and yellow hawkweed are invasive plants in North America, but their flowers are visited by many beautiful butterflies.

Mixed colonies of windblown yellow and orange hawkweed at base of rock outcrop (time exposure with wind)

Canadian tiger swallowtail (Papilio canadensis) perched and nectaring on orange hawkweed

One reason the milkweed is classified noxious is because it can propagate through the production of airborne seeds.

Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) Bursting seed pod

Roadsides and other marginal habitats are often places where invasive plants get a toe-hold.

Roadside wildflowers: Daisies, Birdsfoot trefoil and vetch.

Hare’s-foot clover (Trifolium arvense) Flowering colonies in Olympic Park on the road to Hurricane Ridge

Russian thistle is unwelcome in South Dakota’s badlands ecosystem.

Russian Thistle seedlings in cracked mud. (Badlands National Park, SD)

Oxeye daisies and dandelions are so common we often forget they are non-native. The dandelion flower and leaves have some culinary and medicinal uses.

Large colony of roadside oxeye daisies blowing in strong wind (time exposure)

Oxeye daisies, star chickweed and hawkweed in urban roadside habitat.

 

Dandelions on lawn with flowering serviceberry bushes. (Manitoulin Island, Ontario)

 

Shortly I am off to Churchill for an exciting polar bear photo tour (with John Marriott). Brenda and I just returned from autumn in the (very busy, but very pleasant) Smokies in Tennessee. Blog entries to follow, when there is time. Thanks for stopping by.

Milkweed Garden

Brenda found another monarch chrysalis a few days ago, hanging from a cucumber leaf. It is late in the season and most of the milkweeds are going to seed. Frost is threatening so we hope the adult will emerge in time. Summer of 2013 was a relatively poor year for us on the monarch butterfly front, with noticeably fewer adults seen flitting around our milkweed patch and fewer caterpillars observed chewing milkweed leaves and flowers. These observations jive with disquieting reports in the media about plummeting monarch numbers province wide, with fingers pointed at the usual suspects- habitat loss and agribiz practices along the monarch’s migration routes.

Milkweed is classified as a noxious weed in Ontario. I innocently brought a seed case home a few years ago. The seeds are so darn photogenic. Because the Sudbury Region’s soils are acidic (great for blueberries, not good for milkweed) there are few populations of common milkweed in our area. It has thrived near our garden. Now we have a burgeoning patch of milkweed, which invades our garden and lawn, but we pull and mow when necessary and let it thrive since it is the host plant for the beautiful and famous monarch butterfly. This January, Brenda and I will touring to California where we will participate in Cathy and Gordon Illg’s Beauty and the Beasts Photo Tour that will include two days photographing monarchs in their western winter refuge.

Even though milkweed is noxious it is attractive to us in so many ways. The flowers are lovely and fragrant. Milkweed attracts many other small critters that feed and live among the plants- hummingbird moths, other butterfly species, spiders and beetles. And of course it is the host plant for the monarch.

Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) Flowers

Here are some favourites from over the past few years. Most were made with a 200 mm Nikkor micro. I prefer soft, overcast light.

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Manitoulin Island In Spring

Burnett’s Sideroad near Sheguiandah

The “Island” is one of my favourite places for day trips and overnight photo trips. Situated in Georgian Bay Manitoulin is Canada’s largest freshwater island. The topography is largely rural and agricultural with many lakes, pastures small towns and woodlands. The Island is an extension of the Niagara Escarpment and Bruce Peninsula, its geologic base being largely limestone. Even though it is barely 100 km from where I live in the Canadian Shield, Manitoulin’s ecology is very much different from that of Northern Ontario’s ‘spruce/moose biome’.

A spring pasture with cattle near Green Bay

Spring is a favourite photographic season for me no matter where I am. Manitoulin offers possibilities to photograph rural landscapes, hardwood forests with flowers on the forest floor, waterfalls and the Georgian Bay shorelines, with their alvar ecosystems. The rare lakeside daisy blooms in these alvars in late May. In early May however I expected to see marsh marigolds and the blush of fresh spring colour in the aspens and perhaps the hardwoods.

As we so often seem to remark these days, Spring was early this year. Even so, I was very surprised to see trilliums in full bloom in early May. This is something I would expect to see much later in May. It was a bonus, albeit slightly disquieting.

High Falls near Manitowaning

Maple woodland with trilliums near Kagawong

Canada plum flowers along a rural road

Bridal Veil Falls near Kagawong

Alpine Meadow Gardens

Meadows in the Sky, with alpine flowers in bloom

Red paintbrush, purple lupine, yellow arnica, mauve daisies, green fir trees, grey rocks. Intense colour abounded everywhere. I felt like a kid in a candy store. It is nature’s Butchart Gardens. This is Mount Revelstoke National Park in British Columbia, at the peak of alpine flower season. The ecologically fragile alpine meadows are traversed by well- maintained trails of varying lengths. The park itself has easy access from the Trans Canada Highway near the city of Revelstoke. The Park Service has constructed a 26 km Meadows in the Sky Parkway, a paved road up Mount Revelstoke, taking the visitor to a parking area. From there you can hop a 1 km shuttle bus to the trail heads. Depending on your physical fitness I would advise the photographer to walk the road, at least one-way, ideally both, as the flower displays along the road are particularly exquisite. More information on the National Park can be obtained by visiting the National Park’s website.

For flower photography along the trails and road I carried my backpack and tripod with lenses ranging from 16-35 to 200-400. I used my macro lens sparingly. My lens of choice was the 70-200 but I liked using the 24-70 when the skies cooperated. I prefer soft overcast light for flower photography but when the sun was out and the skies were filled with nice clouds it enabled me to include the spiky fir trees in landscape images. The best time to visit is in August. This past  year (2011) was a late bloom- third week of August. I found the Park Service staff to be very friendly and generous with their time, answering emails and phone calls as I checked in on progress of the flower display.

Lupines, paintbrush and arnica in bloom

Alpine meadow with red paintbrush and rocks

Red paintbrush blooming along the Meadows in the Sky Parkway.

 

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