THE DOMES: GOOD, BAD, AND UGLY

It had been several months since I last traveled to Milwaukee's botanical gardens at the Mitchell Park Domes.  So last week I put my macro lens on my Nikon and paid a visit.  There was a fair amount that was new, and, moreover, perhaps my eyes were refreshed.  Having said that, I kept very few of the shots that I took, and even then the results were "mixed"--"good, bad, and ugly.

First, the "Good."

Maybe I should say "OK" rather than "good," as these are by no means great.  But I did like the black background for the second shot, which allowed the flowers to pop a bit more.  These first two photos are not really macro shots, but I liked the compositions.

Next the "Bad."

The above, from the tropical dome, was more of a macro shot, which created depth of field issues, as the photo reflects.  I took a number of shots at varying apertures.  I chose this as the least objectionable choice.  Smaller apertures resulted in the background creating a distraction, and larger apertures left too much of the image out of focus, with only very small "islands" of focus.  The above image was shot at a middling f/8.

For my choice of "Ugly," I offer the following agave in the desert dome.

I was attracted to this plant for the white margins of its leaves and, believe it or not, for its brown color.  Maybe it was dead.  I tried this as a black and white, but that wound up emphasizing the wrong elements, so I kept it as a color shot.

Finally, I offer the following as what I thought was actually a very good shot.

This was a "family" of barrel cacti in the desert dome that I thought did work as a black and white.  Compositionally, the center of attention was actually the smallest cactus in the lower center of the image that appears to be surrounded by and under the protection of the rest of her family.   I would also comment that the bit of gravel in the lower left and in the extreme lower right corner provided some "grounding" for the shot.  I used a narrow aperture of f/25 to make sure everything remained in good focus.

Of the 60 or so photos that I took during my visit, I kept only five, less than 10 percent of what I took.  That may say something about my rustiness in macro, or it may be about how picky I have gotten, particularly on technical issues.  Even with the few photos I kept, I was not happy with all of them.  Hence the title of this post.  It may seem odd, but in some cases if I feel good about even a single shot from a session, as I did here, I can be happy.

John