Droplets

Welcome back to Davis Park! I ended up going back to Davis park two weeks later, but the pictures from the first visit lasted until this second visit. Anyways, this picture is a macro picture of that purple flower. To take it, I took the purple flower and dropped it into the water. I then flicked a few water droplets on it to give some texture and shape to the flower. Then using my macro lens, I took this picture. I wanted to be extremely close and have the sharpest focus as possible.

Down Below

I have to take as many pictures as possible of the same object from different angles, so I moved into the middle of the creek. I wanted to highlight the rocks and creek that were underneath the bridge. In a perfect world, there would have been a reflection of the bridge in the creek, but there was no still water to achieve this.

Nature's Bridge

After the pictures at Davis Park, I started biking home but found this bridge hiding in some trees. Then when I started walking down into the stream, I saw this picture. I have seen other people take this type of picture, but I have never had the opportunity too. The older looking bridge, surrounded by trees, and with some water flowing underneath, never the type of picture I would have expected to take in an urban city.

Biking

I applied the same style of filter to this picture as I did the last one. I made the top half look bluer, while the bottom half was redder. The technique of this picture is also the same as the last one. I wanted to use a low vantage point to capture the bikers biking. Thought I wish you could see the bikers a little better, I still think the picture is quite interesting.

Roots

Next, as I was walking around the stream, I found these roots. Originally I didn't think much of them but decided that I should attempt to catch a picture of them. When I took the picture, I took it from a low angle to make the roots appear as steps. When editing, I added an interesting filter. I only had it apply to the top half of the picture but turned down the saturation on the lower half. Overall, I really like the picture and think it came out much better than I was anticipating.

Above

I then found another of the same type of flower resting above some moss. Like the last picture, I added the same warm filter to this picture. With these last two pictures, and many others, pictures you can tell where the focus begins and ends. I feel this is both an advantage and disadvantage to having a lower aperture lens. The lower aperture allows for crisper focus and better night pictures. But, if you keep the focus on f2.8 the entire time, there will only be a small portion of the picture that is in focus.

Yellow Flower

When I found this flower, I was in awe by its size. It was so small! I instantly knew that this picture had to be taken with a macro lens. Then during editing, I applied a filter. The filter is a yellow/orange color, making the picture have an overall warmer tone to it. I wanted to complement the flower while also adding some subtle tones around the picture.

Sun Flower

This was one of the more complicated shots just because of all the moving parts. There was a current, making the flower flow downstream, trees were blocking the sun, and the flower just barely fit inside of the shape of the sun. But, I feel the result is well worth it. I ended up turning the picture black and white, because even in color, you couldn't see much of the purple-ness of the flower.

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.