Project 52 - Botanical Subjects by Geoff F - 3rd Quarter

[Geoff F]

A three shot merge, Kaye, to give the flower depth without background problems.

[Kaye Leggett]

A three shot merge, Kaye, to give the flower depth without background problems.

You don't always have to own up to the secrets of a good photo!

[Geoff F]

Week 31. Making use of an overcast day for some tricky subjects which would have been a struggle in sunshine.

Rosebay Willowherb.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens 1/320 F6.3 Iso 400. Difficult to find angles which excluded bright spots in the background.

A closer shot of another plant from that species.



Sneezewort.



Couldn't find a perfect condition plant and there isn't much detail in those white petals to begin with. A two shot merge but a bit of a compromise between getting sufficient focus depth on the flower head but blurring the close background area.

Tutsan. One of the Hypericum family



Sigma 180 macro lens. 1/400 F8 Iso 200. Tried one the previous day in sunshine and gave up on it, due to the over saturation on those reflective yellows.

[IzzieK]

When I first opened this yesterday offline, I saw only one flower, the white one...then I re-read your narrative again that said it was a difficult shot so I thought maybe that was the answer...this morning is a different story, I saw both of the first two and they are very pretty and look delicate. Good shot...

Week 31. Making use of an overcast day for some tricky subjects which would have been a struggle in sunshine.

Rosebay Willowherb.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens 1/320 F6.3 Iso 400. Difficult to find angles which excluded bright spots in the background.

A closer shot of another plant from that species.



Sneezewort.



Couldn't find a perfect condition plant and there isn't much detail in those white petals to begin with. A two shot merge but a bit of a compromise between getting sufficient focus depth on the flower head but blurring the close background area.

Tutsan. One of the Hypericum family



Sigma 180 macro lens. 1/400 F8 Iso 200. Tried one the previous day in sunshine and gave up on it, due to the over saturation on those reflective yellows.

[Geoff F]

Week 32. A couple of cases where I was going around to several plants and checking various angles in an attempt to find the best available position. Eventually, for better or worse, I settled for these.

Red Dead-nettle



7D with Sigma 180 macro lens. 1/250 F14 Iso

Yellow Bartsia - Parentucellia viscosa



1/160 F11 Iso 200

[JohnRostron]

Getting down to ground level was easy, Izzie.

The harder bit however . . .

I know the feeling. I have replacement knees, and I get up by doing a press-up with my arms and legs straight, then walk my feet forward until I can stand. The other way I take photos at ground level is to face the other way, bend right over, and take the picture between my feet.

John

[Geoff F]

That's what I did, John. Laid on my back and looked upwards for the photo then rolled over before pushing myself up with my arms.

They say wisdom comes with age. But nobody warned me about the downside of getting older!

[Geoff F]

Week 33 - Heathers

I noticed three different types of heather growing together; so I thought I would try something simple and photograph them to show the differences. After a lot of messing around and many rejects this is the best of what remained.

Heather - Calluna vulgaris



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens 1/400 F6.3 Iso 400. I could have got away with a lower Iso but I was spending so much time messing around with different settings and camera angles I didn't notice that option at the time.

Bell Heather - Erica cinerea



Cross-leaved Heath - Erica tetralix



And another 'simple quick shot' of a nearby flower which ended up by causing me considerable difficulties. Greater Knapweed - Centaurea scabiosa



This time I used F8 which gave 1/250 at Iso 400

[Shadowman]

Nice captures. What issues were you having?

[Geoff F]

Everything, John; starting with kneeling down in mud!

Isolating one stem with a fairly clean background was another problem. Multiple stem shots were all rejected because they appeared too complicated.

Reducing the focus depth to blur the background but keeping the subject sharp meant having to do a merge of two focus points. And with two of these images I couldn't do an auto focus merge because that increased background sharpness. So I had to select part of the image then paste it into the other shot.

Over exposure was a risk while having sufficient shadow brightness.

And the fear of not being able to get myself standing up afterwards if I tweaked my fragile back.

[IzzieK]

You should put together a book about this project apart from just compiling them for ID purposes...so your difficulties when taking these shots will not be in vain...

[Cantab]

Another good collection. The last photo (knapweed) is visually spectacular. Your project is no easy task. I took some photos yesterday of some moss -- but nothing worth posting.

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the comments. The organisation which owns this site is aware of this thread, Izzie, and at the end of the year I will give then a disc with the full size images; together with photos of all the insects which I have seen there.

Some more tricky subjects this week.

Week 34. Starting with Wood Sage (Teucrium scorodonia). I tried many angles and camera settings attempting to capture the overall scene. This is the only one which came close to being acceptable.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/500 F6.3 Iso 400

And a closer shot of the flowers.



Sigma 180 macro lens. 1/200 F14 Iso 400

Betony (Betonica officinalis) was another troublesome subject where I rejected many attempts and angles.



1/200 F11 Iso 400. Back to the Tamron lens.

And a closer shot of another flower.



1/400 F8 Iso 400

[IzzieK]

Good for you, mate...You are doing a noble job. Keep at it...

[Geoff F]

Thanks, Izzie.

Week 35. I found all of these to be a real struggle to photograph; and with a lot of rejects.

Starting with a little Eyebright (Euphrasia sp). The flowers are only around 10 mm.



7D with Sigma 180 macro lens. A merge of two focus points. This is the second attempt because a few days earlier I didn't notice over exposure on the leaves; so this time I made sure I was creating sufficient shadow to reduce the direct light. Somehow I seem to see a little Teddy Bear in wet weather clothing with this flower. Maybe I'm thinking about Paddington Bear?

Tormentil (Potentilla erecta) another little flower which was full of difficulties. Another two shot merge.



Redshank (Persicaria maculosa) A strange plant where only one of those tiny flowers is fully open at the same time.



Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)



Switched to the Tamron 24-70 lens. I tried many angles and distances. Ranging from showing the whole plant to close ups. Everything else got ditched and this effort still has a bit of background issues after quite a bit of tidying up.

[IzzieK]

The gremlins are at it again...I will have to go back to this one in the morning...this is what I saw of the second shot...

[Cantab]

Geoff, as always, an interesting and enjoyable set of photos. Is loosestrife invasive in England? We have problems over here with some types of loosestrife.

The redshank caught my attention as I took photos of a plant last summer in an Alpine meadow in which the flower heads were very similar. I'll have to dig them out and compare them.

[Geoff F]

Loosestrife covers several species, Bruce. The purple form is Lythrum sp while the Yellow Loosestrifes are Lysimachia sp.

Most like being in wet areas and I suppose they could become a problem in the wrong places; like many plants. But they grow without any problems in wildlife reserves etc where they provide a good source of nectar for many insects.

According to my book Redshank grows to around 600 metres but there are other forms of Persicaria (known as Bistort) which are found at greater heights.

I have had problems like that before, Izzie, particularly when doing multiple uploads so I now normally link from my P base galleries; but last night I was having a lot of uploading problems which were probably caused by an overloaded system. So I placed these images as direct uploads from Tinypics. The system usually seems to clear itself eventually but I don't know where these rogue images originate. They don't come from other postings on CinC; although several CinC members have had similar problems.

This weekend is the last public holiday of the summer and it was particularly wet last night so I assume everybody was somewhere on the internet. This site wasn't too bad but I eventually had to give up on several other sites, including P base.

[IzzieK]

I love all of them...the colours are exquisite and delicate especially #1. It looks almost like an orchid and I bet it is a small version of one judging from the shot...I like the Redshank and loosestrife...too.

[Geoff F]

Those Eyebrights are part of a small and rather odd family, Izzie, known as Orobanchaceae which includes Broomrapes and things like Bartsia, Yellow Rattle and the Louseworts. They are partial parasites which have normal roots but also obtain nutrients from the roots of other plants growing nearby.

There are several almost identical Eyebright species and they also hybridise freely so it becomes virtually impossible to obtain a full identification.

Week 36. Starting with Common Birdsfoot Trefoil, possibly, because there are a few similar species and this one is normally found in drier locations. Actual a member of the Lotus family - Lotus corniculatus.



7D with Sigma 180 macro lens 1/160 F14 Iso 400. I tried two focus points but I now see that I have still missed a little bit of soft focus areas.

The similar Greater Birdsfoot Trefoil is a more common plant on this mostly damp site.



1/125 F11 Iso 400 and a merge of two focus points.

A Marsh Thistle seedhead



1/200 F8 Iso 400. Another merge of two focus points because I needed to blur out some potential background problems. On reflection, I see that I didn't quite get all of the seedhead in perfect focus.

And a flower from the same plant.



1/160 F11 Iso 400.

I've had quite a few total rejects recently. Not sure if it is me repeatedly doing things wrong or whether I'm attempting subjects which are more difficult to photograph. I'll have to try again with some of them but with a couple of subjects I'm already on the third set of rejects!

A Parasol Mushroom from a different site.