Spring flowers

 

After the cold winter weather and relative scarcity flowering plants spring flowers are a welcome sight into any garden.  Snowdrops are one of the first to arrive.  It is almost surprising to believe that rare snowdrop bulbs can sell for hundreds of pounds, like the snowdrop bulb in Scotland which sold for £725.

Hundreds of years earlier in the seventeenth century tulips were all the rage for collectors.  Large numbers of bulbs became infected by tulip fire which caused striped flowers to occur.  In the Netherlands these rare specimens sold for as much as the price of a house in Amsterdam.

Daffodils are always popular.  Who can resist a vase brimming full of yellow daffodils?

Cherry blossoms flower in abundance, and provide a really stunning sight.  The only downside of this wonderful tree is the almost infinite amount of petals that fall to the ground after a windy day.  One of my favourite spring flowers I have seen this year has got to be the Japanese quince.  I was mesmorised by the beauty of Chaenomeles speciosa 'moerloosei'.

There are so many other spring favourites like bluebells, bleeding heart, magnolia and hyacinth.  The list could just go on and on...

Moving water with camera tv setting

To make water appear frozen or as droplets you can use the tv setting on your camera.  With tv mode you can control the shutter speed. I use a tripod and a remote so you don't get camera shake with longer exposures.

f/40, 1 second exposure (ISO 100) makes the water look more like steam in this shot.

f/11, 1/15 second exposure, ISO 100

f/2.8, 1/400 second, ISO 500

f/11, 1/1600 second, ISO 800 

You can see from the above settings, as the shutter speed gets faster the ISO increases which may increase noise in the image.  The best way to learn is to experiment with the tv mode, so go out and have fun.