High Above

I really like this flower! Most of the time, when I am taking pictures of a flower, or any object, I will move it around from one spot to another. I like to try and take a picture from every possible angle. And like the last few pictures, I kept my camera just barely hovering above the water. For this picture, I positioned some rocks between me and the flower. I like having some out of focus rocks and other objects scattered around the picture to make you 'guess' what they are.

Lone Flower

I then took a few steps away from the flower to capture the surroundings of it. For most of these pictures, I kept a very low vantage point. A strategy I use to make sure I don't accidentally place my camera into the water is to hold my camera from the bottom. I will wrap my hand around the camera lens, and when my hand touches the water, I know to not go any lower.

Little Purple

After taking some pictures of the flower in some flowing water, I positioned the flower to rest on a rock in still water. What made the picture for me was the sharp focus. Without the focus being on the flower, I feel the picture wouldn't be nearly as interesting. Instead, now there is a brown blur in the background and the shape of a reflection and a very crisp picture of a flower.

Slow Purple

I then returned to the creek and placed this purple flower on a rock. I kept the macro lens to create a sharp focus on the flower, and have the rest of the rocks and background out of focus. When I placed down the flower, I was specifically was looking for some streaks of water to surround the rock. The exposure was relatively high, which is why the water looks somewhat glassy, but not nearly as much as it does in a long-exposure.

White Dots

Next, I took my macro lens and found the white flower-like objects that sometimes kids blow. This was the first time I had ever seen this flower this close up. I've said before that the macro lens shows a whole new world, and I think this picture is a perfect example. Who knew that this is what that flower looks like?

Moss Rock

When I first found this park, I was biking around and stumbled on this little creek about 20 feet down a mini hill. I didn't think much of it at first, but ended up spending multiple hours there and continue to go to the park weekly. The park reminds me of some old pictures I took in Raleigh, North Carolina. If you recall, in the woods, with lots of trees. This park is more open then the forest in Raleigh, but still reminds me of those pictures.

Standing Tall

This is my last picture of Ennis, for real this time. It was very dark when I took this picture. I took it after the long exposure and the sunset, which meant there were not lights. I ended up using a flashlight to light this one last bluebonnet before I left to return home.

Backcountry Lights

I then moved the bluebonnet off of the road and waited for a few cars to pass. I had to wait until the sun was setting and had set, to allow for better long exposure. I also ended up combining three different car light trails to give the effect that there were more cars. In the background, there were some slight sunset colors, but the clouds blocked out most of the sunset.

Lone Road

I then moved one of the bluebonnets to the middle of the road. I thought it would be interesting to have the focus be on the bluebonnet, then the open Texas backcountry in the background. I think this could be even better if I was able to apply some filters on it, but my ability to do so is left at school, which has closed until mid-May.

Floating

Next, we moved on from the first park to in the front yard of someone's house. Due to the virus, most of the parks were closed. The spot where I took bluebonnet pictures last year was closed because of this. So we improvised in front of a house. It wasn't as good as being in the park, but it satisfied my bluebonnet desires.

Resting Spot

Next, I moved the flower to a spot in a tree where two branches met. I ended up adding more water to the flower to make the flower look more interesting. I just took some water out of my water bottle and flicked it onto the flower. This picture is a prime example of the different apertures and resulting focus lengths. For this picture, the aperture is f2.8, and you can clearly see the focus on the bark on the tree. Especially on the right side, you can see the bark go from well out of focus to moderately in focus to in crisp focus.

Cobwebs

Next to the bluebonnets was this small yellow flower. I didn't think much of it at first, but after a closer inspection, I found some cobwebs and water on them. I used my macro lens to keep a crisp focus on the cobwebs. One of the great features or problems with the macro lens is its very sharp focus. When taking pictures with this lens, you want to be very cognizant of what you want in focus. If you want only a very tiny section of the picture to be in focus, then you will likely use f2.8. While if you want the more of the picture to be in focus, you should use a higher aperture like f8 or the entire picture to be in focus with f48.

Symmetrical

So I made a little mistake and forgot to post the rest of the Ennis pictures :) So, welcome back to Ennis! For this picture, I wanted to capture the bluebonnet in a very symmetrical way. I tried to position the center of the bluebonnet in the center of the frame and have the rest on the sides of the picture.

Still Water

Welcome back to Dallas! After my trip to Ennis, I spent a few days biking around town. I found a new favorite spot to take pictures, its called Davis Park. My favorite part about it is that it has a small creek running through the middle of it. Over the next week or so you will see some pictures from there.

Blues and Greens

For the majority of these pictures, I was using my microlens. I want to use my new 24-70mm wide-angle lens, but its minimum focus point is too far away to take these types of pictures. The minimum focus point is the closest an object can be for it to be in focus. It varies on the type of lens, but there is a specialized lens for much a much smaller minimum focus distance.

Bluebonnets

Welcome to Ennis, Texas! I drove about 45 minutes south of Dallas to try and take pictures of bluebonnets. Of course, the night before, I told myself to research and find the best bluebonnet viewing spots, but I forgot. So when we drove down there, we were driving around searching for the perfect spot. We ended up settling in front of someone's house. It was positioned on a small, backcountry road, but had tons of bluebonnets, which ended up being very cool!

Small Flower, Big World

Next, I placed the same dandelion on a bridge. I used my macro lens to create a very sharp focus on the flower and to keep everything else well out of focus. I started taking pictures from far away, but I felt the flower wasn't close enough to the camera. While it did sacrifice some of the bridge, the position of the flower was closer, which I like.

Glass

After taking pictures of some flowers, I went down to the creek. In these next two pictures, I want to highlight the dandelion. For this picture, I positioned a dandelion in between some bricks. I then used my neutral density filter and a long-exposure technique to take this picture. I wanted the water to have more movement, unlike some other pictures, when I have wanted to freeze the water in the air.

Micro World

While I do say that most of the time, that grass isn't something special, for this picture, I felt I could make it seem special. In the small stream, I found some grass growing. I positioned my camera very close to the water to maximize the reflection. I like the way the water forms itself around the grass. Because of its surface tension, it sticks to itself, causing it to create 'bends' in the water.

Yellow

As I walked down the stream looking for anything interesting, I found this tube. It is used to separate the stream from a driveway that is above, but I used it as a tunnel to my subject. I took a small, yellow flower and placed it at the end of the tunnel, with the walls of the tunnel leading up to the flower.