Lily close up
looking at the pollen heads on a lily
looking at the pollen heads on a lily
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Aug, 2016Views
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Awards
People's Choice in Up Close and Personal Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
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Superior Skill
All Star
Magnificent Capture
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was one of those pictures I didn't have to go to far to find, this is the stigmata and anthers of a Tree Lily that was growing in my front gardenTime
I took the picture quite early in the day, but pretty much any time would have been fineLighting
Although these look fantastic on a bright sunny day, to achieve this look, I caught it quite early so the sun wasn't to harsh, I used a reflector to reduce any shadow but wanted the brightness of the sun light to highlight the stigmata with its red tip.Equipment
The image was captured with my Nikon D800 twinned with a Sigma 105 macro lens, a good combination, I also used a tripod and remote trigger along with a white circular reflector.Inspiration
My wife is an award winning gardener, and every year we get a fantastic display of plants and shrubs, We get many images of the landscape of the garden, but not many that concentrate on the finer details, I am always in awe of the beauty of nature, and these particular flowers have always atracted me, so I decided to capture them in a different way to normal. I was particularly pleased with how this plant came out and have it as a feature image in a wall. It always gets favourable comments from visitors.Editing
I always do some post processing, a little sharpening, contrast adjustments and minor white balance adjustments, but that was all that was needed with this particular picture.In my camera bag
I nearly always have my own holy trinity of lenses along with my D800, I have both the Tamron 15-30 and 24-70 along with the Nikkor 80-200 As well as those I have a SB600 just in case, and a Sony A6000 with the 16-50 kit lens. I also have a metabones adaptor in case I want to put one of my Nikon fit lenses on that body. For this particular image though, I only had the equipment I used with me.Feedback
The capture of the image is quite simple with the correct equipment, a tripod is important unless you have a fast shutter speed, also, a reflector is quite important to balance the light across the scene. I have tried using flash, but wasn't really happy with the results so prefer natural light. I can't really give too much advice, but try not to attempt this if there is anything more than a very gentle breeze as you will end up with motion blur. Macro photography can be fun and even if you can't afford a macro lens, there are cheaper ways of achieving the same results, reversing rings or macro tubes are two that are worth considering if you are just trying macro as the investment in kit is very small.
