Archive for the 'flowers' Category
17
Sep
more dandelions
15
Sep
dandelion
26
Aug
late summer flora
Please click on the images to license and download them on istockphoto.
24
Aug
crystalline
17
Aug
up close
26
Jan
Orchidaceae
Orchids are quite magnificent plants with upwards of 25,000 species found in almost every habitat on Earth!…including areas close to the Arctic Circle and Antarctica. Several things that we seem to encounter on a regular basis are derived from orchids including vanilla bean. It takes one single vanilla bean pod 8-9 months to ripen and because orchids have a very delayed blooming cycle, it’s easy to understand why vanilla bean is so expensive!
An exhibit of orchids recently started at Longwood Gardens. I had never been to Longwood Gardens before (I know, I know - practically a sin for the plant lover in Philly), but I went to check out the orchid display and it’s quite magnificent. I received some bad news last week so being surrounded by beautiful flowers and aromas for a brief time was quite nice. However, I don’t think that my withdrawal for nature macros has been queched.
Anyway, this is not the orchid from which vanilla is derived, but just one of many orchids that I photographed. I will post more soon.
While I was there, I also had some thoughts for more macro tips and tricks, of which I have not written much lately. So perhaps I will do that sometime soon.
I had been wanting to get in at least one more camping adventure before the really cold weather arrived. Chris and I were planning on going to Hawk Mountain over the weekend…a place that both of us had wanted to go to for a while, but had never been. It’s currently the season for raptor migration so it’s definitely the best time to go. I managed to convince him that we should go camping at Locust Lake State Park, about 50 minutes from Hawk Mountain. I’d never heard of this State Park, but the photos looked nice. After running some errands on Saturday morning, we were in the car on our way to the park. Everything was about an hour and a half to two hours from Philadelphia so it wasn’t that far away. We picked out a campsite and set up our tent before heading out to dinner. We didn’t think that we’d find a good restaurant anywhere nearby, but we had a fabulous dinner at a somewhat upscale restaurant in Pottsville called The Greystone Restaurant. Honestly, it was probably the only upscale restaurant in Pottsville or maybe even a 30 mile radius. After we had full bellies, we headed back to the campground to start a campfire and make s’mores for dessert and being geeks with our headlamps. It was a cold night, but I prefer that.
In the morning, we packed everything up and then headed out for Hawk Mountain, stopping at a small old hotel for some breakfast. It was a beautiful day outside and we were ready to see some raptors! We arrived there and hiked to the first lookout….and then the second. I was in a crabby mood. I didn’t find Hawk Mountain as appealing as I thought it would be. Granted, the weather wasn’t right for birds, but even on a bad day, I’ve seen more birds at hidden gem lookouts closer to Philly. I guess there are some other perks about Hawk Mountain, but I couldn’t see that it was all that much better. Maybe on a good day. Nevertheless, the weather was nice and it was really funny (and cool) to see so many people looking for birds.
We made a stop at the New Bethel Cemetery that I had first visited with Albert and Steve. It was a sunny day and not nearly as spooky as the foggy, cold day when we had visited in May.
We stopped at Cabela’s on our way home. Neither of us had been there either. Chris bought thermal pants. I bought…FUDGE. Yes, FUDGE. Who would have guessed that Cabela’s has awesome fudge, but they do. So if you go there, go to the fudge shop because it’s AWESOME.
That is all.
I’ve recently had a lot of people asking me about my use of papers, textures, and other media for creating composite photos. For the last 2 years or so, I’ve been collecting and scanning old papers, letters, books, postcards, etc. In my opinion, the grungier and dirtier they are, the better! Sometimes you’ll even find me picking up trash off of the street and stashing it into a bag or my back pocket. Hey–they’ve always said that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure! Trust me….I’ve gotten some crazy looks from strangers and friends.
I use a flat bed scanner to create a high resolution scan of the item that I plan to use as a texture. For some composite photos, I’ve used multiple textures. For this example, I am using one. The texture that I scanned was a blank page in the back of an old book.
Next, I choose the photo that I plan on using for the composite image. In this case, it’s a photo that I took at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve.
I’m not going to go into details about how to create a composite photo in Photoshop. But it’s generally quite easy if you know how to use layers. You’ll also want to put that blending tool drop down menu to work in the Layers palette to see which blending mode suits your taste. In this case, I used “overlay” and then made small adjustments to the curves of the flower photo and slightly reduced the opacity on the texture layer. And voila!
To view or purchase any of the textures that I use, please check out my large collection of textures on istockphoto.
You can also view or purchase my previously created composite photos here.
I haven’t been to Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve since May. I had bought a membership at the time, too, but haven’t used it since. Yesterday I went flea marketing in the New Hope area with friends, followed by a yummy picnic and walk through the Preserve. I was also able to give my newly repaired macro lens a test run…it’s working again.
It was a pleasant day. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot blooming in the late summer months here on the east coast, but it was still quite lovely outside.
10
Jul
No Macro
This seems to be the year of broken equipment. Now my macro lens is in the shop. Guess I can’t complain because I’ve pushed that baby to its limits, it’s at least 10 years old, and I haven’t had a problem with it. It’s a workhorse. Sharp as a tack. My favorite lens. Hopefully fixable.
No macro photos for a while. 
That’s ok. I’m sure you were getting tired of seeing plants anyway.
