Don't forget to shoot in your backyard

One of the joys of being a landscape photographer is traveling the country or perhaps the world to pursue your craft.  In this blog I would like to suggest that you not overlook your own backyard.   I'm guilty of this I must admit.  For the past several years I have been working to cultivate a nice garden at home.  Last year I was taking another photographer friend to the airport for a trip to Iceland and he looks around my front yard and asked if I had been taking pictures.   It was a reminder that my hard work from years past was paying off and there was a lot to photograph.  I too was guilty of overlooking the beauty in my own yard.  

Since then I have made more of an effort to photograph the beauty of my own yard.  The blog image is one of my Calla Lilies shot with the new Lensbaby twist 60 with a macro adapter that fits between the body and the lens so I could shoot a little closer.  Clients of Road Runner Photography Tours are eligible for a 10% discount on Lensbaby products, so drop me a line if you want to make Lensbaby part of your photography toolkit.

Spring Finally Arrives

After a colder than normal winter spring has finally arrived here in Virginia.  I shot this image a few days ago during one of our meetups.  We have a busy meetup and tour schedule during the next few weeks but I hope not to miss the tulips.

Kenilworth Gardens Meetup

Yesterday morning we had a fantastic Meetup at Kenilworth Gardens!  It was nice to see old and new friends alike.  We maintain a fairly active Meetup Group here in the DC area and if you don't belong I would encourage you to check us out.  

Fun with Flowers

This tulip was well past its prime when I decided to put it in a block of ice. 

Recently I have seen a number of great photographers who are doing incredible work 

with flowers that are well past their peak.  Considering that freezing the flower 

is not a pristine way to display the beauty of mother nature, why worry

 about obtaining pristine specimens.

While I enjoy this type of photography I admit I do it too few times a year.

I usually think about it in the spring, but for some reason I don’t in the summer 

or fall.  I need to work on that!  

Blue Bells

Yesterday we held a Meetup at Riverbend Park in Great Falls to photograph Virginia Blue Bells.   As usual we had a nice group of photographers and I think a fun time was had by all!  

Poppies

Just a quick post from my last trip to Longwood Gardens.  While the Blue Poppies are the main attraction, It's also fun to shoot the other poppies on display.  

Spring

I look forward to spring each year because I really do not like winter.  Here at home I’m only seeing the slightest promise of spring, so each March I head to Longwood Gardens to kick off the spring photo season.   The star attraction at Longwood is the Himalayan Blue Poppies.  This year we were a little early, or perhaps the poppies were a little late, and the display area was fairly small and quite crowded.  

This year we had a group of 20 or so photographers from Road Runner Photography Tours Meetup join us so I found other flowers to shoot, like the one pictured above.  

I used the Lensbaby Composer Pro with the Double Glass Optic to get the shot.  

Take Time to Photograph the Flowers

Last Sunday evening I grabbed my camera and tripod and did a little photo walk around the neighborhood.  I like traveling to great locations but don’t forget the locations next door!   In the case of the flowers, I just setup my tripod on the sidewalk of a neighbor’s house and clicked away.  

So much for being timely

          

  

When doing a photography blog it seems that two things are necessary, regular posts and perhaps timely posts.  After all in this day of instant communication, it’s about what you’re doing “now”.  I try and post about once a week, give or take a few days.   I also try and keep the work recent, but it seems like I’m failing at the second part of the deal.  I’m working through a considerable backlog of images and see no indication that I’ll be caught up anytime soon.  So I’m going to ask for some forgiveness from my followers in regards to the “timely” part.   If you want to follow my latest adventures,  I would recommend that you follow me on Facebook and Twitter. 

Above is an image that I took of the Bluebells back in April.  I used a light green fabric for the background and a reflector to put just a light splash of sunlight on the flowers. 

Frozen

Recently my friend Karen Rexrode gave  a presentation to our camera club and one of the topics was freezing flowers.  I was intrigued and the results are certainly unique.  With daffodils starting to bloom and no other plans to make pictures this weekend, I thought I would give this a try.  I learned a few things and had a good time in the process.   I’m just getting started and hope to do some more experimentation over the next few weeks.  If you’re interested in learning how to do this drop me an email and I’ll send you instructions. 

Tulip Farm

Or perhaps I should title this post Tulip Factory.  Manassas Warrenton Camera Club recently took a trip to Tulips USA.   It was one of the best attended club trips I have ever been on.  I think all of us had visions of a greenhouse full of tulips in bloom!  The reality was quite different.  This facility has multiple rows of greenhouses,  all of them at least a football field in length. The tulips are grown hydroponically and are picked just short of blooming.  After all, they need to be in bloom after the customer takes them home.  The owner of Tulips USA gave us a complete tour of his facility and then turned us loose.  We had free reign to shoot anywhere in the facility, very generous on his part.   As I recall this facility ships about a million tulips a week.  It was a very impressive operation.

While I think most of us showed up on Saturday morning with a vision of rows of tulips in full bloom, it took me only a few minutes to readjust my expectations.  I always try and embrace what is right with the world, at least in regard to making pictures and this was a great place to spend the morning.  I think most of my fellow club members felt the same way.

Flowers

 

I’m not sure how this happened.  It certainly wasn’t planned, but with the exception of going to Longwood to photograph the Blue Poppies earlier this year, a whole season went by without spending any time doing flower photography. I will have to make sure I don’t repeat this mistake next year!  

Blue Bells

The truth be told, I’m really too busy to grab my camera and go shooting. After putting in an 8 hour day on Saturday doing some home remodeling, I got up on Sunday at 5:00 to meet up with friends Bill Gercken and Karen Rexrode from Manassas Warrenton Camera Club for a Blue Bell shoot. This time of year the bank of Bull Run Creek is covered with Blue Bells. I shot for about an hour and a half then packed it in and headed

back home to resume work on my project.

The Blog picture was shot with the Lensbaby Composer and the Soft Focus Optic. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite lenses for doing close ups of flowers. I also used my Nikon R1C1 handheld to provide a little side light.

One More

This past weekend I finished an adventure that I can’t wait to blog about, but before doing so I wanted to post another favorite from my recent trip to Longwood Gardens.  It is a 10 shot multiple exposure close up of a hibiscus bloom taken with a Lensbaby with the soft focus optic.

Blue Poppies

Last weekend my friend Greg Daily and I went to Longwood Gardens. This was not our first opportunity; we had others but have been holding out for the Himalayan Blue Poppies. Longwood displays these rare poppies for just a couple weeks in March every year. This year was a little disappointing. The poppies were in 2 large planters and were positioned in such a way that it was hard to get a colorful background.

I understand that additional poppies are scheduled to be planted this week, but I doubt that I will be going back. My tripod broke during this trip, the 3rd time in 3 years and I had to send it out for repairs.

Last Chance for Flowers

This past weekend I attended a Garden Workshop with Tony Sweet and Susan Milestone at my friend Sara’s house.

Heading into this workshop I must admit that I was feeling a bit worn out and not really in the mood. I have been hitting photography pretty hard this year, having a great time along the way, but some other pressing needs are starting to assert themselves. After hooking up with Tony, Sue, and Corey in the Garden on Friday night for a little pre-workshop shooting, I felt myself getting energized and back in the mood. You just cannot hang out with these top notch pros and not get infected with enthusiasm.

Flower Time

In addition to taking pictures of old cars and other grungy things, I do flower photography. I was thinking it had been quite some time since I posted any flowers and it had been even longer since I had posted a flower gallery. Last night I was at my friend Sara’s house and had a pretty good session in the garden. The added bonus last night was that the wind was nonexistent. One of the frustrating things about close-up photography is the slightest wind causes subject movement. Last night I was shooting 1 second exposures with no movement. In the garden this makes for the best possible conditions.

Click here for the flower gallery.

First Hint of Spring

Tonight after taking Big Duke for his 2 mile walk I decided to see what I could find in my garden. I started shooting some daffodils and crocus, but settled on this impressionistic image of a red tulip. Spring is just around the corner and I’m going to have to stop shooting so much grunge HDR and get back into flowers and landscape.

Blog picture was shot with a Lensbaby 3G.

Two out of Three

I had originally planned to visit Longwood Gardens 3 times this year before spring arrived in the Mid-Atlantic area. It looks like I’m going to have to settle for 2 out of 3 this year. Last weekend I joined friends Alan and Greg for a day trip to Longwood. First stop The African Blue Poppies!! These are really nice poppies and Longwood puts them out for 2 weeks this time of year. I know lots of photographers that go just for the Blue Poppies.

In addition to shooting the Poppies and doing some macro work, I tried my new favorite thing, Ultra Wide Panoramas. The Blog Photo is a 14mm frame panorama of the Orchid Room at Longwood.

During my last Longwood posting, I mentioned that I had not found my groove in regard to shooting flowers this year. During the last trip I felt that I got a little closer to being on top of my game.

Click here for a small gallery.

Flower Time

Monday I took a day off work and traveled to Longwood Gardens with friends Sara Howell and Karen Rexrode. Longwood is a favorite location for shooting flowers this time of year. I hate to admit it, but I’m seriously out of practice in regard to shooting flowers. I’m planning 1 or 2 more trips to Longwood before spring arrives here in Virginia. Hopefully I can find my groove by then and I’ll post a flower gallery after my final trip.

The shot about is a 6 shot vertical panorama taken with a 15mm lens.