Lots of Lilies

[Dizzy]

Stopped and asked permission to take photo's at a local home on Tues. evening. They keep such beautiful gardens, and at the moment the lilies are the most prominent. Permission granted, so off I went and grabbed the D90 outfitted with the 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G. I had brought the 70-300mm along as well, but decided to just go with the 18-105mm and see how that went, and never mounted the larger lens.

Weather was warm, humid and sunny. Found shade in a few spots, and in others had to get creative to get the better light.

Now that most of my images are actually coming out in-focus , I've been working harder on getting a better composition. Found many challenges with trying to find just the right angle to shoot the pic from, and in a couple of cases even sat down and just stared at the flowers for a bit before walking around them yet again, and ultimately choosing one angle or another (or all of them) and then taking the shot(s). Found that my first choice of location/angle was usually the one I liked best.

1/200s f/4.5 at 38.0mm iso400

Posting 2 views of this one, as the images were taken from different angles. Technically speaking, I'm not sure if one is better than the other, but each offers something a bit different:

1/1000s f/5.6 at 105.0mm iso250

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1/1000s f/5.3 at 75.0mm iso250

Made several attempts (with copies) to remove those wooden stakes, but it was just too difficult. Have to wonder if they detract all that much from the photo as a whole, or do they just bother me?

1/400s f/4.8 at 48.0mm iso250

This last one is the cropped out center of a Gladiolus:

1/500s f/3.5 at 18.0mm iso400

Was somewhat pleased with these after processing, as this was the first time I had achieved any level of success using the camera to capture the essence of an image that was pictured first in my mind. Still, there is a long, long ways to go, and the plan is to enjoy every step of the way.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Mike

[Bobobird]

Very nice. I like 4 and 5 best. Pic 1 is nice but it appears as if a scissors had been taken to the petals. A closer shot may have been better.

You hit the nail on the head with "how I first see". if the first look does not bring about some reason to photograph it, no amount of staring and angling is going to bring any "magic".

[FrankMi]

Hi Mike, I like them all but the last one of the Gladiolus is a sparkling winner for me. The biggest issue I see is with # 2 & 3 but only due the the high contrast shadows on both the flowers and the background which has the effect of running a distracting high contrast pattern throught the entire image.

[Dizzy]

Yeah Bobo, the petals on lilies tend to roll off very sharply, giving that impression. You can see how they have rolled over in a couple spots, but I agree with you about them looking chopped off.

Frank, on #2&3 I tried to find a better angle as know all that contrasty light in the background would be trouble. In person, the flowers really stood out against the green background, but I failed to capture that.

Given the opportunity, I'll try that one again.