FUCHIA "GILLIAN ALTHEA"

This year we got baskets of something called Fuchia "Gillian Althea" to hang at the entrance to our home. The plants feature abundant showy flowers, each two to three inches across. The blossoms have a complex system of petals, and I decided to use my macro lens to photograph just a portion of one of the blossoms to create a colorful abstract. 

What drew me to this particular flower was the fact that the backlighting of the blossom's interior created a sense of depth that appealed to me.  

My macro lens allows me to get very close (2-3 inches between the front of the lens and the subject).  As a result the image is not greatly cropped.  The drawback is that the optics reduces significantly the images depth of field.  I chose to focus on the leading edge of one of the petals, but even at relatively narrow aperture of f/22, the overall focus is a bit soft.  Because the image is semi-abstract to begin with, in post processing I softened it further by reducing contrast.

The next day I took another shot of the same blossom but in different lighting conditions.  Here is how that turned out.

In this shot I wanted to emphasize more the backlighting of the blossom's interior.  The light was warmer as well.  I also introduced a bit more overall contrast between lighter and darker elements.  All of which served to make for a more dramatic shot. This was taken at an extremely narrow aperture of f/64, my macro lens's limit.  Even so, there are elements of greater and lesser sharpness of focus.

John

© 2020 John M. Phillips

HUMMINGBIRDS

Each year we put up a hummingbird feeder outside our living room windows that overlook our deck.  And each year I am amazed that the neighborhood hummingbirds find the feeder to get sugar fixes.  And almost every year I tried to capture some of those visitors with my camera.  This year has been no exception.  

I am the first to admit that I lack the patience to do wildlife photography, even on those occasions when I don't need to leave my living room.  Not only are hummingbirds notoriously skittish around humans, but they are nearly always in motion.  And, let's face it, they are tiny.  Given those problems, even with a telephoto lens they are difficult to capture in photos.  As a result, I am never going to get award-winning shots of these beautiful birds.  But here are some images that I was able to capture.

These photos warrant a few comments.  First, all were taken from inside our home rather than from the deck.  The birds were simply too wary to stick around when I was outside on the deck.  The glass was relatively clean, but in the middle photo (of the bird sitting vertically) the bird's breast's reflection in the glass is apparent.  Second, the shots are cropped to an extent.  Even from a distance of 5 or 6 feet (when I am lucky) and with a 300mm lens, the birds appear small.  Third, the top of the feeder is a red faded over the years to a magenta.  That color serves to attract the birds, which is good, but, depending on the light, the red reflects off the birds' nearly white breasts, false-coloring them a pink.  I was able to eliminate most of the reflected color in post processing, but not all.

Hummingbirds are amazing and I am generally happy to have captured what I did.

John

© 2020 John M. Phillips