Your Daily Bridge. August 13, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: an extender for my tool, Bridge of Flowers, Canon 2X III Tele-Extender, Canon f5.6L 400mm lens, dahlias, Gizmo, gladioli, peek-a-boo, shameless tag trolling ;), Shelburne Falls MA, tele-extenders
4 comments
I just can’t stay off of that damned thing!
But this particular visit to the Bridge of Flowers in nearby Shelburne Falls was a furthering of my investigations of the combination of my 400mm Gizmo and a Canon 2X tele-extender.
The combo is cumbersome, shaky and slow – the auto-focus on my 5D Mark II doesn’t work in this configuration, and the 2X closes the maximum aperture by two stops, leaving me with a max ap of f/11, which makes hand holding difficult for this shaky old relic. I addressed that problem with a monopod collapsed short and canted against my thigh in a kneeling position. It made for wet knees on a dewey morning…
Hey, one does what one must to get that shot! 😉
So, the results:
People can be photographed from enough of a distance to not be self-conscious – here gardener Carol works to keep things beautiful:
Thanks, Carol! 😉
The tele-extender doubles the magnification of my 400mm Gizmo without increasing the minimum focusing distance. Glads from just over twelve feet:
Crisp focus is difficult with 800mm hand-held, and nearly impossible for these hands with a twirling subject:
…but she was too darling to not include in this post. God bless the children! 🙂
I did better with stationary subjects like dahlias:
The effect is nearly macro-like, with a peek-a-boo look which brings a viewer into the scene, or so it seems to me…
…and the depth of focus includes the entirety of a blossom while utterly excluding the background:
This is exactly what I was hoping for from this visit: find the strengths, isolate the weaknesses and develop strategies to contend with them.
I’m pleased.
This Bud’s For You! October 13, 2010
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: dahlias, macro photos, morning glory, roses, sensual, sexy bits
8 comments
I got these shots yesterday evening on a hit-and-run mission. The light was running low and the wind was blowing, so I ditched the tripod, bumped up the ISO and dove right into the hearts of some of the season’s last flowers, concentrating on shallow depth of field and complimentary background blurs.
The resulting images are a bit different from what I usually aspire to, perhaps a bit more like art and less like documentation of the natural world.
I hope you like them.
Roses:
Dahlias:
A variegated blossom, didn’t catch the name:
Another I don’t know, but whose sexy bits beckoned:
…and lastly, a view down the slender throat of a morning glory:
Maybe it’s just me, but I find there’s something especially sensual about these very personal views of flowers which are merely pretty when viewed from a more respectable distance.
Ruby Tuesday – Randomly Rubilicious! October 4, 2010
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos, Ruby Tuesday!.Tags: Bridge of Flowers, Cheshire, dahlias, dragon fly, farm shed, Orcutt Hill, prayer flags, rainbow, sunset
7 comments
Here are a few rubilicious shots from the past few days.
A barn peeks through the rain-soaked woods along a country road:
A farm shed in Cheshire:
Dahlias on the Bridge of Flowers:
Dragonfly wings:
A rainbow in the last light of the day wreaths our barn:
And lastly, sunset in the opposite direction:
Sorry for the hodge-podge of images, but they were all varying degrees of ruby, so I threw them in the pot. 😉
For more Ruby images, visit Mary over at Work of the Poet!
Ruby Tuesday On The Bridge Of Flowers! August 9, 2010
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Ruby Tuesday!.Tags: bee, begonias, Bridge of Flowers, coneflower, dahlias, Ruby Tuesday!
6 comments
Took a short walk today on Shelburne Falls’ famous Bridge of Flowers.
It was Rubylicious!
The air was cool and calm, the light subdued:
The Coneflowers were popping, much to the delight of plentiful honey- and bumble-bees:
Begonias begged at my ankles:
But the Big Dogs on this day were the Dahlias, which fairly hijacked the place:
Big as saucers and saucy as hell:
And yeah, they came in other colors… but then, they wouldn’t be Ruby, now would they?
😉
Thanks to Mary over at Work of the Poet for this Ruby meme!
Ruby Tuesday! August 4, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Ruby Tuesday!.Tags: Bridge of Flowers, dahlias, lillies
7 comments
Yeah, I know – it’s kinda late to be posting this. But I needed to shoot the full moon, then I had company…
Anyway, here are a few semi-rubiate shots from the Bridge of Flowers in nearby Shelburne Falls:
A Dahlia there, and here, a lily mix:
These I don’t know the name of :
…Anybody??
They have interesting blossoms:
…and don’t look at all native to this area, nor are they in any of my field guides.
At any rate, sorry to be so late to the party, and thanks to Mary over at Work of the Poet for this fun Tuesday meme!
Nature, Nurture, And How We Meld The Two. June 28, 2008
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Bridge of Flowers, dahlias, daiseys, Malcolm Hilliard
4 comments
I generally don’t photograph anything which doesn’t occur naturally, and only thus warrant the tag, “nature photographer.”
And I kinda like that, being a voice for the voiceless things and places and spaces which make up the better part of my world. Because knowing about the world around us engenders caring about the world around us. How can we not embrace the natural world when its detail is shown to us, its mystery presented to us as an offering, an extended hand, an invitation to know?
But sometimes the Made World intrudes, and in fact informs my images, as with photos of the Shelburne Falls potholes which include the dam and surrounding buildings.
And within spiting distance (well, ok, you’d need a vicious Easterly wind) is The Bridge Of Flowers, certainly a magnet for visitors, but more to the point, a sanctuary in the heart of a small river town, a bit of beauty which wouldn’t be there but for the vision and efforts of those who fund and maintain it:
So here are a few shots of what’s blooming there this weekend, just in case you happen to be in the area (or are nowhere near here, Thank you Interwebz!):
Here’s a great color combination, a rich yellow/orange and an intense blue, it almost doesn’t matter which blue you choose. Thank You, Malcolm Hilliard:
Here’s a dahlia of some kind, much less flamboyant than most of its family, but I liked its simplicity:
And I photographed these little guys last year, and didn’t catch their names:
They’re osteospermum, the Sunscape Daisies.
The Bridge is too pretty to not share when it’s in bloom, so please excuse my foray into “cultivated nature.”
Little Bang Theory 