Pretty
Aug, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at my kitchen table, one of my very first shots. I am mostly self taught and absolutely loved how this one turned out, a bit of hit and miss most days early on but It is so rewarding to look back a year on and I am happy to say I still love my work. I firmly believe that you have to do what you love and love what you do, the rest will take care of itself.Time
I found the Queen Anne's lace (Wild carrot) on an afternoon walk the day before and absolutely loved the delicate pale petals. I took several shots initially but didn't feel that I captured the essence of the flower so left it in a vase on my kitchen table. The "conditions" were perfect the next morning and I managed to get the soft dreamy shot that I had in mind originally.Lighting
The light that came through the window that morning was soft and dreamy and for a beginner the perfect opportunity to play around with various apertures to finally get the "right" look.Equipment
This was taken with my very first Nikon D5500 with a Nikon 105 mm macro lens. These days I shoot with a Nikon D7200 and my go to lens is my Nikon 105 mm macro.Inspiration
I am fascinated with flowers and have been very early on in my life, I am often taken back to my grandmother's garden and can sense her close to me when I wander around looking for the perfect flowers to shoot. Queen Anne's lace flowers are so romantic and they can be quite tricky to shoot so a perfect learning opportunity for a very novice then.Editing
I had very little exposure to post processing in the early days so this was straight out of camera with an addition of a watermark. I love how little you have to do in post if you get it right in camera. These days I love working in Lightroom and Photoshop and adore textures in most of my work. In the end I am painting with light and love my pictures to resemble works of art, I adore painting and admire the old masters like Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.In my camera bag
I don't have a lot of gear and make the most of my Nikon D7200 with the following lenses: Nikon Macro 105 mm, Nikon 50 mm and my Nikon 70-300mm. I never leave the house without a bottle of water and some bird seed, for my second favourite subjects, little birds.Feedback
Flowers are the perfect subjects for beginners, firstly they have no expectations of you, they don't talk back and they won't judge you when you take hundreds of shots whilst you get the hang of your camera and all its settings, all of which can be very daunting in the beginning. I also love the fact that if I don't get something right today I can go back tomorrow and try again. Flowers allow you to play and get familiar with light and to use various apertures to create your final vision. "I dream of painting and then I paint my dream" Vincent van Gogh"
