An Indoor Spring: Flower Photos from a local Floral Shop

As I may have mentioned in my previous post, it's been a LONG winter here in Milwaukee.  We've dubbed it the winter that never ends.  However, today is gorgeous outside - sunny, not too windy and almost 60 degrees!  So I'm sitting here writing this post in my living room with the patio door open enjoying the sounds and smells of the new spring (even though it's back to the normal 30's-40's starting Tuesday - oh well).

Yesterday was another nice day, and I spent part of it at Waukesha Floral & Greenhouse where, thanks to Art's Camera Plus, they opened their doors to Art's Camera Club and let photographers go in and take photos of anything they want.  Like any garden store they had a greenhouse, large indoor plant section and gift shop.  This is a great place to practice macro photography and other flower photography, and since it's indoors, you don't get harsh shadows that you would get photographing flowers outside on a sunny day (although some of the spots in the greenhouse did have harsh sunlight). 

I also did this last year, and learned so much about aperture setting, manual focus and focal length.  The best way to take macro shots of flowers, where only part of the flower is in focus and everything else is blurry, is to set your DSLR to Aperture Priority for Canon (not sure the equivalent for Nikon), take the aperture setting down to its lowest setting (mine goes down to 4.5-5.0) and then use the ISO setting (the one that measures in 100's) to make the photo brighter or darker, depending on how you want it to look.  I usually keep that setting to 100-200 unless the room is really dark, and then I move it up).  Then keep your camera on a tripod, get in close and use manual focus to get part of the flower sharp.  If you have a camera that has a lens with image stabilization, like mine, you can get in closer without a tripod, but keep your body as still as you can.  This is because the aperture is open so wide, any little movement is going to throw your whole photo out of focus.  This happened to me a few times yesterday, but, thanks to digital photography, I just deleted them and tried again.

Below are some of the photos I took.  Not all of them are macros, some are groups and a couple of vignettes, but I do like to change things up during photo shoots.  Unfortunately, there weren't as many flowers in bloom as there was last year, due to our February faux spring, but there was still a lot to look at and it was another fun experience.  Hopefully, the next flower photos you see from me will be from an outside garden!

Happy Spring everyone!

More Flower (and Garden) Photos from Madison

The few times I've gone out and taken photos in my area, they've mostly been flower photos since, in my state, our time with these beautiful botanicals, is short.  Last weekend, I visited Madison's Olbrich Botanical Garden before their flowers started to wilt and had a great time.  The Garden is so vast and so full with different types of flowers, fountains and statues, that it's a great (and peaceful) way to spend the day.  I was thrilled to practice my close-up photography in such various ways:

 

I also got some photos of the Garden's structures including an Asian hut shipped to Madison from Japan in 2001:

What they call the "Rose Tower":

One of their gorgeous fountains:

After I went through the gardens, I went into Olbrich's main building where they had a day lily exhibition.  I had no idea there were so many varieties:

I was even fortunate to capture one of the many butterflies that are now part of Olbrich's Observatory.

If you are ever in Madison, Wisconsin, the Olbrich Botanical Garden is a great way to spend part of the day and get away from the bustling city.  And it's FREE!

Spring Flowers

Spring has finally started coming to Wisconsin.  Recently, I took a class on Macro Photography, especially how you can use it for flowers.  Then I went to both Waukesha Floral & Greenhouse and the Mitchell Park Domes to practice my new skills.  I had a lot of fun and learned a lot!

I will try to post more photos of flowers as they bloom in the outdoors over the next few months.  This post is for Wordless Wednesday.  To see more bloggers' photos (and maybe more flowers), click here and here.

I'm Ready For My Close-Ups

I have never been that great at taking macro photographs, and I'll be the first to admit it.  But, recently, I upgraded my camera to a Canon EOS 3 and bought a detachable telephoto lens to go with it.  This has completely changed my life.  I'm so excited to start using this telephoto lens to take great macro photos.  I may be taking a trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo soon, and every photographer I've read about online that took pictures at a zoo used a telephoto lens to get great shots.  This is due to the fact that the telephoto lens, used up close to any fencing in front of an animal exhibit, will blur the fencing to create a much better shot than a point-and-shoot.

I took the photo above and the ones below at Holy Hill near Richfield, WI on the way back from the WI Auto Museum over the Memorial Day weekend.  I used my telephoto lens on most of them, and they turned out great (the only bad part was I suffer from vertigo, and in order to get the shots of the top of the chapel, I had to aim my camera right above my head which made me unsteady - thank goodness I bought the telephoto lens with image stabiliazation).

I took the next two pictures with my regular, wide-angle lens, but I figured out how to adjust the aperture to let more light in, since it was very dark at the back of the chapel.

The photo above and the others below, were taken with my old Kodak point-and-shoot camera, which has served me very well with macros (it doesn't work very well indoors in low-light, which is why I upgraded to the Canon).  I often take the Kodak with me to work in case I get inspiration to take photos during lunch or afterwards and don't want to lug the Canon and all of its attachments with me (also great if you want to take photos in a not-so-great neighborhood - nobody will want to steal a $200 camera.  Or street photography where you want to be non-obtrusive).

I'm hoping to take more macro photography now that I have the Canon with the telephoto lens, and enhance my portfolio.  I'll post more as I gain more confidence.