You got a Piece of Heart! — 100mm | f/2.8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/500
I’ve been sitting on this photograph for just over two weeks now. It’s been processed up and ready to go and everything, I’ve just been slacking. Anyway, here’s one of my backyard bleeding heart flowers just after it hit full bloom this past May 1st. Later that very day I scored this fine sunset at Stafford Forge; always a bonus when you walk away with two keepers in one day.
Even before my macro days began—and all the way back to my time as a youngster—I always enjoyed the company of these early season plants. Harbingers of good times, and a fun reminder of my all-time favorite video game franchise. Yes, that’s a hint toward the title I chose.
Here be Dragons — 100mm | f/2.8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/100
I’m a Game of Thrones fan. I’m a macro fan. I’m a black and white fan. So for my money here goes the trifecta. I know many folks appreciate my wide angle landscapes—the sweeping shots of the dramatic sunsets that readily pop-up along the Jersey shore. Those are great, and I love getting out there and making those photographs. But what excites me the most is getting up close and personal with the micro world at the business end of a macro lens. Old school handheld shooting I can couple with the drama of shallow depth of field and its smooth bokeh, finishing with a moody black and white photograph rendering just enough mystery and pause into the final frame. It is in these most I feel most capable—most inspired.
And as far as Game of Thrones is concerned—am I on point in seeing a dragon here, or is that just me? Better yet? Season 5, episode 4 airs tonight!
With the first turn in the weather, the calendar mandates it’s time I get back to my photographic roots. After a toddling period of crash course trial and error in the early days of 2012, flower photography quickly established itself as my go-to comfort spot behind the camera. It’s where I first felt some semblance of control in the process of making satisfactory photographs. Everything else—most certainly landscapes included—felt far too unwieldily and daunting at the time.
But with a diverse array of flowers in abundant supply in just about every corner of my property, I had plenty of eager subjects waiting to help me learn and grow. Here I more often than not unwittingly stretched my creative muscles through soft focus and shallow depth of field with my petaled muse. I remember being quickly drawn to the way bokeh and soft focus when juxtaposed with areas of clarity can move the eye throughout a photograph, bringing layers and depth to an image. This exact relationship is what was entirely lost on me as a high schooler struggling with painting—for whatever reason I was too engrained with this hyper-realistic bias where everything had to be clearly defined and in focus. Never understanding that all that clarity, when deployed incorrectly creates competition and noise throughout a composition.
So while the sunsets and landscapes are sure to continue, a steady dose of flowery soft focus and shallow depth of field is on the way. For now we’ll start with this daffodil—the first of my flowers to bloom.
A pine for every season — 40mm | f/2.8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/100
Yesterday morning was cold, and yet you wouldn’t know it from this photograph. It never ceases to amaze me, the indiscernible nature of pines. Without their pine cones as a guide or air temperature as an indicator, it’s virtually impossible to distinguish a season on looks alone. While their deciduous cousins are annually betrayed by fallen leaves the interminable pine stands above, immovable. Timeless.
As I was skulking around the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area scoping out yesterday’s steamy ray shot, I made an about face and saw some wonderful golden light breathing life into a once innocuous pine branch no more than two feet from my face. As I was already loaded up with my 40mm pancake lens, I set the aperture wide open and went for some close range shallow depth of field goodness.
These are for you — 40mm | f/2.8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/640
Friday’s are always better with flowers. At least I think so. With Fall here this is getting to be just about it for flower season. Until next year, little buddies.
Grooving on some sunshine — 100mm | f/3.5 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/60
I took this on Friday so I’ve been a little lazy in getting this posted. My plan was to post this for #floralfriday but hooray laziness. That was sarcasm. Mostly.
Each season, for the past three seasons anyway, I make a point to photograph my backyard quick fire hydrangea in the early Fall; after its white petals bleed out to soft pinks and purples, but before said petals fall to the ground for winter quarters. This was the product of my annual rendezvous.
Just a Silver-Spotted Skipper snacking on some sedum — 100mm | f/4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/160
Here in New Jersey we’re just about out of scenes like this for the season. As the Autumn veil descends life begins its annual retreat. Through the ebb and flow photography encourages the capture of singular moments that otherwise slip by riding the sands of time. These moments simultaneously give us both something to remember and something to look forward to. It’s wonderfully circular.
This shot pushes the soft focus about as far as I like to go. Perhaps too far. Given a mulligan I’d try to bring the eye into sharper focus. As it stands it’s the wing edge that gets the very narrow field of sharpest focus. Which is interesting in its own right. Photography doesn’t always have to be perfect to be beneficial. Sometimes things are just good enough.
The last of us — 100mm | f/4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/250
Just a guy getting in the very last his purple coneflowers have to offer. My potted echinacea are last men standing (barely), and I wanted to get in some eleventh hour shots before final decay.
As afternoon light was pouring in over the rooftop I grabbed the camera and went for a slightly upward perspective shooting from a crouched position. With one good flower left I wanted to really go for a sharp cut-off with respect to depth of field, drawing attention to the ends of the front four petals. From there I’d let a low key workflow and buttery bokeh tell the rest of the story.
There’ll be nobody home — 100mm | f/4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/160
I arrived home from the foothills of eastern Pennsylvania stretched and worn. Bettered but battered after a long weekend celebrating my cousin’s pending nuptials. A good yet exhaustive time was had by all.
Leaving the cousin’s shiny new F-150 my mind clung to the imminent hopes of a hot shower and a nap—here it is, victory. Or so I thought. Immediately out the truck I noticed 1) my sedum have finally blossomed, and 2) a butterfly had finally come to rest on one my flowers. I’d seriously been waiting all season for this.
With the shower and nap plan on hiatus I grabbed my gear and tried to get a capture. I only got off two shots before this common butterfly was scared away for good—my approach wasn’t exactly one of stealth—and neither of which were from a frontal perspective. Even still I connect with the story this image tells. One of time. The never ending story of the inescapable passage of all things. And somewhere out there is the future we can’t quite see.
