The foliage on this species of barberry is awesome. The patchy red remains throughout the season, although it might fade a little. Fall color is spectacular. As for flower and fruit display, dunno. My plant is still too young.
Scott
This message was edited Apr 26, 2006 9:16 PM
Scott,
You take spectacular photos! Please tell me the type of digital camera that you use.
Thanks,
Mike
(I just purchased a Canon PowerShot A620 7.1 MP digital camera and I love it - so far. I have not had the camera long enough to be as skilled as you at taking photos.)
Mike - I can assure you, I could have the exact same camera as Scott, and would still cut the heads off half the people in my blurry photos! I sincerely hope you consider a career in photo-journalism scott, if you're not already employed as such.
Hi Mike,
I'm using a Nikon 4800 4.0 megapixel point and shoot camera, and I absolutely, unabashadly, unashamedly, effusively love it! I, too, think it takes great pictures. Maybe I am utilizing some of the compositional skills I picked up long ago when I was heavy into film photography, but certainly this camera makes it easy.
Here are a couple of things I try to do right:
I try to shoot when the light is interesting, which basically means as far as possible from midday. Sometimes, however, shooting on a cloudy day allows for a few nice things to happen, especially if there is a misty rain.
I'm not afraid to shoot towards the light. Most references will tell you not to do this, and for a lot of things, they're right, but for plant photography they're discouraging people from taking a lot of great shots.
I frame my shots. What does this mean? In film photography days, it meant you shot a picture at the exposure the meter suggested, and then you took two more pictures at one exposure over the meter and at one exposure under. This usually meant that one of your three pictures (or five--if you also took two shots at two stops faster and slower than the meter indicated) would be exposed about right. But in digital photography, with my camera at least, the exposures are almost perfect, the exception being sometimes when shooting into the light. If you're doing that you can do the old-fashioned framing by shooting once normal, and then another shot using your backlight function.
Take lots of shots. What the hell, they're free! If I'm taking a picture of a flower, I take five of it. Somehow, one of them is always better than the rest, although I'll never know which one it is until I get home and screen them.
Get really close to your subject. The bigger the object of interest is in the frame, the more interesting the picture.
Try to put the object of interest, or the focal point of the image, off center in the picture. How to describe this without writing a book? A golden means rectangle (this is a classical art and architectural term) is based on the Fibonacci (sp?) sequence of numbers. 1+1=2 2+1=3 3+2=5 5+3=8 8+5=13 etc. Do you see the pattern? If you take any of this patterned sequence of equations and make a rectangle from it, you have a golden rectangle, so a 5" by 3" rectangle is one, as is an 8" x 5" rectangle. Many buildings, books, doors, paintings, furniture and other human things are proportioned using this ratio, as are the usual sizes of photographs. Interestingly, so are many things in nature, including tree branching and leafing progressions and the spirals on shells, but I'm straying off topic. If you take an 8x5 rectangle, and fit inside of it the next smaller golden rectangle, which would be a 5x3, you've created a line across the frame about two thirds from the bottom. Do the same for the other dimension of the rectangle, and you've now got a crosshairs at about two thirds from the top and two thirds from the side inside your rectangle. Ideally, this is where the focal point of your image should be. It is where Mona Lisa's nearest eye is. It is where most great works of art are centered. Or, if your object is linear, like a branch, try to have it move from one golden mean point (there are, of course, four) to another. Basically,if none of this makes any sense, just remember this: try to place the item of most interest in the shot slightly above or below and to the side of the very center of the frame. (I wrote all the above from memory and some facts may be misrepresented and others might be missing. Please feel free to correct the above or elaborate on it, folks. I know there are two bonafide landscape architects here who must of sat through many a class on this topic, and maybe an artist or two also. Also, I would bet there are some good websites regarding the Fibonnacci sequence or the Golden Means if one wanted to pursue this more. It is a truly fascinating subject that can almost give one goose-bumps in its perfection and ubiquity).
Don't be afraid to use the crop function on your digital imaging program, although it usually seems the best shots are ones that were never cropped.
Take a lot of pictures. Study the ones you like and try to figure out why they worked. Study the ones that you hate and try to figure out why they didn't work. The ones that are ho-hum, play with them to see what would have made them better.
Keep taking pictures of plants. Flowers, leaves, trees, these are masterworks by a master artist. It is hard to go too far wrong when capturing impressions of these as your images.
Scott
This message was edited Apr 27, 2006 2:25 PM
This message was edited Apr 27, 2006 2:30 PM
Thanks for the tips, Scott. If the rain ever stops, I'll be able to get out and try some of your suggestions.
Thanks again,
Mike
Wow Scott. Thanks for splaining the Fibonacci sequence and golden means triangle, I have heard the terms but had no idea what they were talking about.
I know the terms; I may even be one of the landscape architects Scott is referring to with boney fides.
But as to what he's talking about? I think it's Carpinus acerifolia fever.
LOL
What is the best viburnum to use in a tight space, Vee? Please list attributes. TIA.
Sounds like a new thread, PG.
Give me more info: tight space has many connotations, and not all PG-rated.
LOL!
I'll start a new thread..
