California Trip - Macro Work

On a day like today where the weather is terrible, it's nice to think about color again, even if for only a bit. The last topic I covered while in California was macro work. Admittedly, this is my favorite subject, but I really felt it had been overplayed in the DC area. I felt as though I were shooting the same things all the time. California was a great breath of fresh air - not an orchid in sight. Here are some of my favorite shots:





A few notes:

I went earlier in the day to take advantage of the misty weather. Harsh sun plus macro shots = not so terrific results (to me, anyway). The mist plays out best in the second and fifth pictures.

You'll see there's a lot of purple. I took these shots for my younger sister's benefit - she loved the blue and purple flowers.

Another advantage of shooting early is the possibility of playing with raindrops on flowers - like the first picture.

Other flowers can be just as pretty as orchids. Maybe they aren't as delicate and unique, but there are colors, shapes, etc to play with, too.

I had to get down fairly low and close to shoot most of these. Of course, I tried many different angles.

Settings:

ISO 400, f-stop of 5.6 (in general), white balance "cloudy", post-processing tweaks - minimal. Of course, I used my macro lens.

Next time: How I did compared to my goals that were set during my dress rehearsal in July.