Purdy Flowers ...

After a hectic week of driving, visiting, 'vacation' and even some work, the lovely wife and I had a wonderful visit with friends in the Texas hill country for Memorial weekend. One part of that was a visit to the Antique Rose Emporium so that the ladies to could make gardening plans. If you are in the area, it is a very nice place to stop and look around.

One problem that comes up often for me is how much camera to take, and how much energy to devote to fun photography (as opposed to work photography) while hanging out with friends and family.

To solve that dilemma here, I took one camera and lens... the 5D and a 50mm. This was limiting because it is not a very good close-up lens.

The real key is to use what you have in hand rather than looking at all of the shots you would get if you took a whole kit with you. And the bonus... you focus more on what is around you instead of the camera itself.

I am not a very good flower photographer, so composition could be a lot better, but it is fun to practice. At least flowers don't get bored, annoyed or angry about posing :-).

One thing is certain... it is essential change viewpoints and get down on flower level to shoot. Shooting from snapshot-standing position will result in a bunch of boring photos.

As always, look for interesting things to use in the background (or foreground) to add depth to photos.


Triangles almost always make a nice composition, whether it is flowers or any other subject.


If you have a DSLR and a lens that can give you a nice out-of-focus background, use it wisely. If you don't have a good, single focal point in the photo, the short depth of field can actually just make the photo a mess. Like this, at f2.2.


As a contrast, leaving enough in focus will give plenty of pieces to draw the viewers' eyes around the photo.


Finally... don't forget to take people photos too.


Thanks for stopping by... if there is a particular photo question, subject or idea that you would like me to explore, please drop me a line.

Don J.

Exposure Basics - Fountains and Shutter Speed

This blog started as a place to point people who ask me about photography. One of the questions I hear most often (usually sports related) is about stopping action. When you leave your camera on automatic mode, you are at its mercy in this regard.

Shutter speed determines how long the exposure takes, and therefore how much of the subject's movement or camera's movement is captured in the frame. Faster shutter equals less recorded movement.

Many people are disappointed in their camera's ability to use faster shutter speed in dark areas, and this is one of the areas in photography where money ends up making a big difference. Newer and more expensive cameras and lenses are more sensitive, and let in more light to enable the higher shutter speeds.

The easiest way to play with the shutter speed is in "shutter priority" mode. You pick the shutter and iso, the the camera does the rest. For some reason, tV is the designation for shutter priority mode on the camera. If you know why, let me know.

Streams, waterfalls and fountains make great places to play with shutter speed, because at either end of the spectrum, motion stopped or blurred, there is a neat result.

Here is a run through of the same shot with corresponding shutter speeds of a fountain at the wonderful Fort Worth Botanic Garden.

1/400 Shutter Speed, the motion is mostly stopped. The focus point for this series is the rock in front, so the drops are out of focus on this one.


1/100 Shutter speed, the drops show a little movement, but are still separately defined elements.


1/50 Shutter speed, and you can really see some motion happening.


1/15 Shutter speed, and the drops are blurring together. To me, this looks closest to seeing the fountain in person.


1/5 Shutter speed and all definition is lost. Past this point, you get the silky-white water look that turns waterfalls into a surrealistic flowing look.

1/5 was also as slow a shutter speed possible on the 5D with this much light (Lowest ISO setting and highest aperture). To get more, you can add neutral-density filters on your lens to knock down the light a bit.

A tripod is recommended as well. I did not have mine for these shots, so I was kneeling on the ground "being" the tripod....


Using high shutter speeds is fun with water as well, to freeze droplets in mid air like the abstract looking thing at the top of the post.


Here are a few more shots from the FWBG...


1/500 shutter

1/40 Shutter

Fountains acn make interesting background objects because of the organic shapes.. In this case it looks like a ghost!


The fountain makes an exclamation point for the end of the vine-covered walkway...


Hanging vines with water droplets, low Aperture setting, and that turned out even better than I had hoped...


Some flowers I've never seen before...


And roses of all shapes, sizes, varieties and colors...


Including dead


The view down through the rose garden and fountains


And another abstract water droplet shot, just for the fun of it.


Happy Shooting

don j.

Backyard news...

OK, so this is a bit of a divergence from photo talk, but there are photos...

My lovely wife is an avid gardener, and she has turned our back yard into an oasis of flowers, veggies and general beauty.  A mockingbird family took up residence in a trumpet vine, with two baby birds until yesterday.  Now there is one baby, and he has abandoned the nest, maybe a bit early.  The mother bird is none too happy to have a goofy photographer snapping away... 

Seriously, total snapshots, but great scrapbook material (one of my wife's other hobbies).

Mom bird looks down at baby bird...  If I had been thinking, I should have put this together into one shot.  

Mom bird glares at photographer...

In other news, a huge Tomato Hornworm is making a mess of the tomato plants.  Seriously making a mess of them.  These things make bigger poop than mice, and they devour the plants down to the stems.  They also do not die easily.

It was getting dark, and I had the camera out so I decided to play with the flash in the evening light. By hand-holding the flash off of the camera, you can have the light coming from other directions. This looks much better than direct on-the-camera flash.

Sooo..  get out and shoot some, even if it is in your back yard.  Use the time to practice a technique or just document what's around you.  I'm not old yet, but I do know that having photos to remember places, people and experiences will be a great joy in the future.

Happy Shooting,

don j.