Earlier this week, my macro lens arrived. What fun I am having! Being able to move in close to subjects, whose details just beg to be shown, is both challenging and rewarding. I realize that I have much to learn in the art of macro photography, though I consider this a blessing too. With each lens or setting on our cameras, we are challenged to look at the world around us through varying parameters, adjusting our stance, our vision, our ability to see more in order to make something beautiful occur within the frame. If only life could be so easy!
Below are a few of my first attempts at shooting with a macro lens. Again, so humbling. So much to learn. My subjects are flowers growing in my garden, as well as wild flowers backing to the woods behind our house.
“Sweet Woodruff.” I still haven’t clipped any for wine making or incense. But they’re so pretty to look at, and aesthetics, that’s really what I am enjoying this year about my garden.
“Red Petunia.” My petunias are thriving in the sun, having an urgency to stay in bloom and responding well to all the dead heading that Annabelle and I do.
“Zinnia.” To be honest, not doing so well. I wonder whether she needs more water, more sun, or something else entirely. Any suggestions?
Perennial salvia. Just lovely.
“Iris.” A beautiful and fading iris growing in my neighborhood. The more I learn about gardening and what grows well in my region, the more I notice that irises, in large groups, are popular in Virginia. Yesterday we traveled all the way out to Bluelmont, Virginia to visit a farm; in town, I admired a lovely iris garden full of all varying colors of iris growing alongside a quiet country house. At home, wherever we walk, folks have irises just growing, almost wild, beside their homes and at the edges of their gardens.
“Cornflower.” It’s wild. They’re beautiful and growing everywhere. I’m considering adding these to my back garden since they seem to be perennials.
“White asylum.” The detail within these tiny flowers simply amazes me. Not to mention being able to see the aphids and other tiny little buggers patrolling the petals. To better photograph aphids and other small insects, in macro, I think I may need to build a light diffuser or look into another flash for my camera.
“Geranium.” For a week or so, the geranium wasn’t blooming, but was still green as ever. I plucked back all the withered buds and petals and voila, another bud burst forth.
“Purple Asylum.” Not shown here, but both amusing and aggravating all at the same time, are photos of these asylum where my arm was not steady enough. The small dots, or stamen, inside the flower appeared in these shaky, blurry photos, as long lines, almost like fireworks set off from inside the flower. While neat to look at, I didn’t find it nearly as satisfying as photos that better depicted what the flower actually looks like, up close.
Any tips on taking steady macro photos? And for those who are master gardeners, I’d love suggestions on what to plant or add to my garden at this stage of the season? Herbs? Veggies? Flowers? I’m aching to dig, :-)
Have a great Sunday,
Jessica
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Wow! These are beautiful photographs. You are going to have so much fun with the macro lens :)
Shelly, I live in zone 7 (the mid-atlantic, just west of D.C.); I have both shady and partial sun plots and I would love to grow large, luscious plants (I just love flowers). I’m thinking I should expand my comment here into an e-mail, :-)
Melody, thank you for the photography tips; I especially like the breathing tips that you learned from firing rifles. . . I do notice that my own breath is movement enough to blur a macro photo. And yes, I surely am having fun . . . if only I could find more time to practice with my macro lens without my toddler hanging on my hip or back, :-)
I think the photos are beautiful! I have been closing down the aperture as small as it goes, and I imagine with a 90mm you would have to do that as well. Here are tips from my limited macro experience:
If it’s windy, hold the flower by the stem to keep it in the narrow field of focus. Keep your breath steady, and shoot either after an exhale or after an inhale (while holding your breath) to keep steady — I do this in low light situations as it is, and it helps especially when you are stopped all the way down. It’s actually a technique I learned in ROTC when learning how to fire a rifle. Experiment with angles, since you have such a narrow depth of field you can play with the plan of focus and create a completely different shot just by angling yourself a little differently. I think you’re already doing this (like in the salvia photo – beautiful!), but thought I’d throw it out there.
Anyway, it looks like you’re having a blast, and the results are beautiful!
What gardening zone are you in? What areas would you like plants in? Sunny or shady? Size you’d like to see them get to? What purpose do you want them to fulfill? I used to do landscape design and have a fair amount of gardens now at home, but there’s always room for more. I’d be happy to help and feel free to email me.
Lynn, thank you for the macro tips. I’ll try a smaller aperture and haul out my tripod (I’m kicking myself for passing along a mini tripod that came free with one of my old cameras, :-) ). Let’s see what happens . . .
abbie, yes, the zinnias were in bloom about 2 weeks ago, but over the last week look pretty shabby. They need some tlc of some sort; I keep dead heading, watering, and fertilizing. Maybe they’re just planted in the wrong place.
TMO, thank you!
What BEAUTIFUL photographs!!!! Wow…
You’ve got zinnias blooming already? I just planted my seeds! Your flowers are beautiful and I’m jealous that our season is behind yours!!!
Now’s a good time to plant some veggies for succession. More spinach or lettuce? I try to plant lettuce seeds every two weeks or so. That way, we’ll have a supply throughout the summer.
I can’t help on the gardening front. Here’s my thought on your lovely photography (after quizzing my son-of-a-photographer husband). Your flowers are sharp, but just not always the whole flower, so maybe your depth of field is too shallow. A more narrow aperture would broaden what’s in focus (but also probably require a tripod because it will slow the shutter speed). That’s what my husband said. I would have said: maybe a tripod? They’re beautiful anyway – nice and soft. :)
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