COLUMBINE COLORADO STATE FLOWER 2010

COLUMBINE

COLORADO STATE FLOWER 2010

While I enjoy photographing flowers, I do not consider it to be my major forte when it comes to photography.

The major problem here in Colorado is the wind. If you have ever tried to capture a flower in a slight breeze you have likely experienced dispointment because you must often woek with a slow shudder speed in order to get the depth of fleld necessary. The columbine is found at high altitudes here in Colorado and there is often a movement of air.

I use an 18-200 mm lens because it gives me all the range I need, and I do not ever have to make a lens change. Dust on a digital sensor can cause major frustrations and the idea is to keep that sensor clean.

On this particular day, the breeze was intermittant, so I was able to capture this image rather easily, and I had a nice background that was dark enough to show detail while allowing the light flower to stand out on its own. The aspen tree immediately behind the flower was in just the right place.

With the zoom lens, I was able to set up my camera and tripod several paces back and frame the scene exactly the way I wanted it. After getting all the elements just the way I invisioned them, I used the ten second delay timer to do it's thing. I often use the timer because it will help reduce any slight vibration that might occur from having your finger on the release button.

Toward the end of this Blog, I show one more flower from back east. It is a bloodroot along the Blue Ridge Mountains and just off the Appalachian Trail. I had a group of photographers from the Camera Club of Richmond out on a field trip back in the early seventies and one of the demonstrations I gave was how to build a background for flowers without damaging the plant. You may enjoy the story behind that scene. I hate to see flowers that have been trampled on or otherwise damaged by careless hikers.