donbenderphotography
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in the parking lot at Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Michigan. I'd been at a nearby public park looking for wildflowers to photograph, when I spotted the decorative fruit trees in the parking lot. I pulled in, got my camera out, and snapped a bunch of images, this one being one of them.Time
I took this image in mid-afternoon, with partly cloudy skies and a light breeze.Lighting
The lighting was all natural, with the partly cloudy skies giving a nice diffuse light.Equipment
I used my Canon 80D with my Tokina atx-i 100mm macro lens, hand-held. The ISO was set at 100, aperture at f/8, and shutter speed of 1/250s; shot in aperture priority mode.Inspiration
I had been taking more close-up images of individual blossoms, and stopped for a moment to adjust my aperture, and when I looked back up I saw this branch full of blossoms, and it just caught my eye. As I was looking at it in the viewfinder, I pictured post-processing as a black and white with red tones, and I snapped the photo.Editing
Yes, the image was post-processed, first in Topaz Sharpen AI and then in LuminarAI where the black and white/color adjustments were made.In my camera bag
I typically carry my Canon 80D with five lenses (Canon 50mm f/1.8, 10-18mm wide angle zoom, 18-55mm zoom, and 55-250mm zoom, and Tokina 100mm macro prime lens). I also have my Haida M10 pro filter holder with a 10-stop ND and 3-stop GND filter and circular polarizer. Of course, I always have my standard accessories like spare batteries, lens hoods, memory cards, etc., and I carry a Godox V860-II speedlight with MagMod Sphere & MagBeam flash modifiers with color gels and gobos.Feedback
My advice is always simple...soak up everything about where you are, and feel the story that starts to reveal itself about your subject and your surroundings. I'm always amazed that eventually a compelling story begins to emerge, and my job then becomes how best to capture that story. Sometimes that's easy to do, sometimes it's damn hard, and sometimes I'm not able to do it at all. It's those times that I just enjoy the story and the moment, and then later it drives me to get better at my craft so in the future I can perhaps succeed.