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.

California Trip - Clouds in Dana Point

As I mentioned last week, California (at least the Southern part, from what I could tell) has a climate of extremes. This poses quite a few challenges when shooting.

Consider clouds. On the one hand, you'll never have to worry about harsh shadows or contrast. On the other, you end up with pictures like these:







As someone who loves bright colors, it's hard to get too excited about these. However, I did what I could. Here was what I was thinking when I took these:

The first two were framed by the red flowers. That added a pop of color. To achieve this look, find some flowers and get low. Try multiple angles - not everything works.

The third was a conscious choice to simply emphasize angles and lines. I was able to focus more on them than I would have had it been a sunny day. They "pop" here.

The last two involved focusing on "themes" - the first one was relaxation (the couches and casual feel), the second one was exercise (that hill was steep).

Overall, I preferred my pictures in the bright sun, but the lesson here is that you can't always choose your environment. Make the best of it!

Settings: Higher ISO than average (you'll need to experiment, but 400 worked well), middling f-stops (around 5.6), cloudy white balance, some tweaking in Aperture - mainly saturation settings.

Next time - some gratuitous macro work in Coronado. I couldn't resist!

California Trip - Daytime Shots - Dana Point and Coronado

California weather is definitely interesting. One minute, you have clouds and fog. The next minute, you have sun. I opted to shoot in both sets of conditions. Today, I'll cover my adventures with the sun and with harsh shadows.

Let's face it, I've never been great at handling the light. However, I think I'm improving. Here are what I consider my top shots during this trip:







The first two have several common elements: I set the ISO as low as I could, I used my wide angle lens, I used my polarizing filter, and I strived to make the water shots more interesting by including other elements of interest - in this case, the plants and colors. To shoot these, I "squatted" and stayed low.

The third picture's settings were the same, but I used the angles and curves as my areas of interest. I stayed on a gorgeous property and wanted to highlight the building in some manner.

For all of these three, I debated making them lighter (because I know they don't show too well on PCs), but I really liked the richness of the colors, so I left the pictures as is. The full-sized versions are the best way to view these, as a result.

The second three were situations where the sun was at its harshest. My polarizing lens really didn't save me for the first and third pictures, but it did for the second. My approach was to make the most of it, and to highlight the contrast as best as possible, without creating too many distractions. Hopefully, I achieved that goal.

Settings: White Balance - Sunny, Aperture Priority (f-stop of 6.3), wide angle lens.

Tweaks: Minor ones, mainly involving brightening some of the shadows, or increasing the exposure overall.

Next time - cloudy day shots (which pose a different set of challenges).