Royal Beauty
Aug, 2016Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
One of my very favorite places to photography flowers, and especially waterlilies, is the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri. This waterlily photo is one of the literally hundreds of waterlily photos that I have taken at the Botanical Garden.Time
I live over 100 miles away from St. Louis, so it can be very daunting to get to the garden early enough to take flower photos before the sun rises too high and begins to wash out the details in the petals. But, while some flowers such as roses and dahlias, in my opinion, need those petal details, I often like the softer and more ethereal look that you can achieve of waterlilies in the sunlight. This particular photo was taken a few years ago in early September, at 2:15 pm when the sun was no longer at its highest point overhead, but still giving off enough bright light to soften some of the details.Lighting
One of the things I love about waterlilies is the bright vivid colors, and as much as I like the petals to sometimes have a ethereal look, I also want the colors to pop, especially the colors in the center like the yellow and white in the unopened petals. Making sure that there is enough light focused on the center, but not too much as to turn the yellows too light. This was achieved by using a doll's umbrella to shade the middle section.Equipment
Time after time, I have heard photographers that I admire say, it is not the equipment that makes a great photo, it is the photographer. The camera I used to take this photo and all my other photos for many years was a Nikon D60...a starter camera that my husband bought for me. But, since I hadn't been doing photography for very long, I didn't know it wasn't a high level camera, so I used it to shoot for years until someone informed me it was a "only" a starter. All I knew was that it was better than the point and shoot camera that I had been using up to that time. The lens was a Nikon 55 - 200 zoom.I also used a doll umbrella for the center, and a larger whitish transparent umbrella to mute some of the sunlight. It is my own invention, with the small umbrella attached to the inside of the larger umbrella. It was a handheld shot.Inspiration
I have always loved the Monet waterlily paintings. Several years ago while I was living in St. Louis, I found one of the Monet Waterlily paintings hanging in the St. Louis Art Museum. I would go there a just stare at it for hours. It seemed as though I would find new colors, brush strokes or areas that I had never seen before. I was mesmerized by that painting and in awe of the beauty I saw in it. I wanted to be able to inspire that kind of feeling through my photography.Editing
From Photoshop, I took the photo into Topaz Adjust and made adjustments to the Adaptive Exposure and used Adaptive Saturation, slightly, to boost the overall color. I then opened the photo in Topaz Clarity to make adjustments to the contract increasing both the low and medium contrast to boost the yellows. I also sharpened it slightly, in Topaz Detail to bring out a little more of the petal details.In my camera bag
I still have and use my Nikon D60 a lot. But, I have also added a Nikon D7100 which I love. I usually carry my Nikon 18mm -55mm lens and my Nikon 70mm - 200mm. I also carry a Nikon 35mm as well as a Nikon 50mm. I have several other lenses that I change out depending on what I want to do that day and what I am going to be shooting. I always have my tripod with me and, if I think there will be a need for it, I include my monopod. I usually take my Nikon SB-700 Flash and also a set of extension tubes and assorted filters. Although I usually only use the neutral density, UV and polarize filter when shooting waterlilies. I carry a few unconventional things as well. I carry a Gary Fong Puffer Diffuser. I also have a couple of large plastic garbage bags, I use them to lie down in a wet/damp area or in case of rain, and a small pair of folding scissors. I always carry my shutter remote for my D60 and my cable release for my D7100. One thing that I carry with me all the time whenever I go out to take photos, even if they are just snapshots, is my user manuals. I have found them to be a necessary and invaluable source of information and they have gotten me out of a mess several times when I can't exactly figure out what I have messed up on my camera.Feedback
I know that there are a lot of things that I will probably think of later to say here, but the one thing that I think would be the most important and valuable is...be creative and experiment. There are things that I would never have thought of trying that worked out so well if I hadn't just experimented and let my creative side go. There will always be the very important technical side of photography, the proper aperture setting, shutter speed and ISO, etc., but what makes a great photo is the photographer and the way that they see a picture. Think outside the box whenever possible. I will end with this example. Not long ago I went with my husband to the Bass Pro Shop. It had been a long drive and I needed to use the restroom. When I went inside the ladies room, I was blown away by what was in front of me. The store had very rustic looking wooden doors to the stalls and I found myself in the restroom for the next hour taking closeup photos of these wonderful doors with the camera on my phone. They turned out to be some of the best preset textures that I have. After exhausting all of the angles on the doors and getting a lot of strange looks, I left and wandered around looking at other things, walls, displays, ceilings and wooden floors. We ended up spending 4 hours in that store until my phone battery died. But I came home with about 400 photos of amazing textures and backgrounds, plus a few photos of displays that I turned into some images that my friends think I took out on a prairie somewhere. Always be looking for a photo opportunity. You will be amazed by what you find when you do.
