Nymphaea alba
Taken on 4 June 2016 in Workum, the Netherlands. Note the tiny spider on the left lily
Taken on 4 June 2016 in Workum, the Netherlands. Note the tiny spider on the left lily
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Jun, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo is taken in a Dutch city called Workum, which is in the Frisian province. There is a small narrow channel that is not far from my home where these plants are growing in every year. While no one really seems to take note of the nature around them, I did notice these amazing plants grow. I try to take a photo of them when ever I see them.Time
This specific photo was taken on 4 June 2016 around 4 PM, this due to the flower being fully open at the end of the afternoon to early evening. I usually walk around town with my camera a lot earlier, but this time I decided to go earlier so that I could take better photo's of this flower. As usually I do not take along my tripod, so this is shot without any support. I used a Tamron 70-300mm lens for this photo, but also tried to get a little closer with a Sigma 50mm. Getting closer was unfortunately not close enough due to these flowers being too far out to even reach it properly. I did not plan to get into the water, so I left it with the shots I took with the Tamron lens.Lighting
I wanted a photo that looked as natural as possible, so no extra lighting or making it look darker. For the Nikon D5200 I do urge to use the flower settings since this makes your photo look a lot less shiny. This also helped with the lily pads and darken the water just enough.Equipment
I used a Nikon D5200 with a Tamron 70-300mm lens for this photo, a fair combination I have to say although I am always very critical of my own work. I am never really satisfied with the results. I did not have a tripod with me as I mentioned earlier, I very rarely use one since I never seem to get any photo that is any good if I do. I do have to say that I own a very cheap tripod which may be the cause of it to be perfectly fair. I did not need the flash to my opinion at the time. The photo is shot in automatic zoom mode and in the flower setting that the camera has. Of course in Macro mode for the lens which is a definite good thing to do, it will make your photo a lot sharper for sure!Inspiration
This specific plant is actually similar to the Frisian province flag logo called 'Pompeblêd' or in English 'seeblatt'. Which has actually a smaller yellow flower instead. This "witte waterlelie" (Nymphaea alba) is far more common in western Europe and can be found in many European countries. I love seeing these plants with their beautiful flowers pop up every year. For me it really tells that the summer is coming soon. They usually show their flowers from May up to September in my region. It is however a difficult flower to photograph if you want a sharp image. Also often you can spot bugs hiding in these flowers as you can with this photo. You can see a tiny spider for example. You can also often spot mosquito's and other tiny critters that could easily proof a bonus. Unfortunately they can be hard to spot at times and show up as bonus in your photo's.Editing
Besides adding my name I did not post-process the photo at all. Although I did try to look at possible improvements where possible with Lightroom, I ended up not liking those modifications and kept the original instead. I used to shoot in JPG only, but after receiving the tip to shoot in RAW I decided to take that tip and do some tests. Since I ended up noticing that RAW and JPG were so different and rather hard to match up, I decided to shoot both in JPG as RAW. At home I usually look at what is better and work with that.In my camera bag
I changed camera's last year, before my current camera I owned a Panasonic Lumix FZ-48 which did not need all those extra lenses, tools etc. Just take out the camera and go. I however traded up because of my old camera dying on me. So I decided to switch to a camera that did need separate lenses. After a lot of research and asking around I ended up with a Nikon D5200 with the default 18-55mm kit lens and a Tamron LD Di AF 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 Tele-macro. While I no longer use the 18-55mm for obvious reasons and hope to replace it soon, the Tamron 70-300mm lens is always with me. For my budget it is a decent lens to have. Along side that I carry a Sigma 50mm 1:1.4 DG HSM, the only lens at this time that I try to use in manual mode as much as possible. Although so far I did not really get photo's that I liked enough, I really need to practice more with manual focusing obviously. Other then that I have a very basic cleaning kit that belonged to my dad's camera set which is over 35 years old. It does the job, but it can be rather frustrating at times due to it being meant for another time. I also always carry some paper tissues, a small notepad and a pen. Paper tissues can be handy for the stains on your lens that can not be taken out with the cleaning kit that I have, also it's handy if you ran out of those or forgot to grab some before you left. I also carry 1 spare battery and 1 extra SD card just in case. For long walks I also have mints with me and a water bottle, it's always good to have a fresh mouth which makes walking in the heat a lot easier, water is of course always needed. You need to have water with you for obvious reasons.Feedback
In windy weather it may be rather difficult to take photo's of flowers, so it could be a lot better to wait if that is possible. Taking your time for a photo is often essential to what I noticed. A quick photo is great, it can do amazing things as well. But in the end you really need to take multiple shots of the same flower just to make sure you have that photo just right. Making sure your lens and sensor are clean does make a huge difference in the end results. Taking the same route on different days in the year as well as different times will give you different photo's. It can proof useful and a good thing to just walk around your own neighborhood and take photo's of the same things every time. A photo is never the same, light may be just a tad different and your skills do improve with just taking the same photo time and time again. So it may be wise to learn as you go. Another good tip is visiting nature reserves, depending on the nature reserve you may need permission of course. But the things you can see there are a lot different from what you would otherwise see. Ask the owner to join you so he/she can explain what you are seeing and can actually see you will not litter or cause trouble. Another option is just walk large distances along with your camera. You don't need to carry all kinds of things, but a lens like a 50mm is essential and a 70-300mm would be ideal for zooming in further. You should look around and even take note of items you deem to be normal or would usually see as not interesting. Your next photo could possibly proof to be a master piece, don't throw that chance away! Something that many people forget is that focusing on 1 specific subject may make you blind towards other subjects. If you are used to nature, you may forget the urban world out there. Don't be afraid to experiment with new subjects. As nature photograph you can learn from other subjects as well, take for example photo's from aircraft or trains. It will give more variation in your collection as well as improve your skills with time.
