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.



Orchid aftercare

I often get asked about what you should do when your orchid has stopped flowering.  Well, this depends on what type of orchid it is.  For most orchids you cut the stem at the base.  Phalaenopsis, the most common available kind in shops are different.  You cut the stem at a node below where the last flower came from.  This should allow the Phalaenopsis orchid to flower much sooner than if you had cut it from the base.

Watering is also a common question.  For Phalaenopsis orchids I go by the colour of the roots.  If the roots are looking nice and green then they don't need water (this is why you should keep your orchid in a clear pot).  If your orchid's roots are looking a creamy colour and are shrivelling then water is needed.  You probably need to water every 10-14 days.  Either water by dunking in a bucket of water or place the pot in a sink and water from the top.  Make sure that you don't get water in the leaf rosette because this could encourage rot.  Also don't let your orchid sit in excess water because they don't appreciate this.

http://www.flower-pictures.co.uk/cut-flowers/h46e3ad3#h46e3ad3

Basic manual photo stacking in adobe photoshop elements

Focus stacking is one of the most useful tools for me in adobe photoshop CS5.  There is no in-built facility to do this in photoshop elements 9 but this is a tutorial on how I improvise.  For this to work, all photos must have all elements in the picture aligned.

I took two pictures of the same orchid.  The first has the front white part of the orchid in focus and the second has the red dots in the centre of the orchid in focus.

 

1. Edit both photographs in the RAW editor so the colours match.
2. Open both photos in photoshop elements
3. With the photo open which has the majority of the details which you want to keep from the menu choose select>all
4. Then from the menu edit>copy
5. Then open the window with the other image and from the menu edit>paste.  This pastes the first image over the second as a new layer.
6. Add a layer mask by clicking on the rectangle button with a white circle in the middle.

 7. When you paint the layer mask with black paint then you can remove the area of the image of the top layer.  If you've removed too much then using white paint will bring the area back.
8. When you've finished you can flatten the image.  From the menu Layer>flatten image.
9. If your happy with the result then save, but don't forget the change the file name.

This is the final image I achieved:

 You can see this image on my website: http://www.flower-pictures.co.uk/cut-flowers/hc84cf23#hc84cf23

Frosty morning

So, it is a long time since I posted anything, and that was not even a proper blog post; just an intro.  I won't let that happen again, and my next blog post will be much sooner.

It was a frosty Sunday morning, so I ventured out for a walk in the woods. I was feeling lazy, so I just put my 18-55mm lens on my camera.  I didn’t feel like carrying my macro lens and tripod, which I am normally never without.  I was so happy with my macro lens that I literally forgot about other lenses. 

The frost left everywhere looking magical.  Even the leaves and dead grasses seemed to come alive.  The ground was frozen solid, so every footstep was accompanied with a crunching sound.

http://www.flower-pictures.co.uk/leaf/h817bbd4#h817bbd4

The berries on the ivy, which were coated in frost looked almost good enough to eat.  They look like they'd been dipped in sugar!

http://www.flower-pictures.co.uk/leaf/h2e44ec90#h2e44ec90

I am not a landscape photographer, and don't even pretend to be.  I can't imagine getting up at four in the morning just for the possibility of getting a great shot.  The only thing that would make me get up at that time would be the chance to see a supernova, or the aurora.  The image below, is my attempt at a landscape photography.  It is not perfect but I like how the green gate contrasts with all the brown colours in the image.

 You can see more of my images at my website: www.flower-pictures.co.uk

Beginning my blog

I have been thinking of writing a blog for quite a while now.   So the time is now, and here it is.  In my blog I will write about my interests which are flowers and photography (you can view my pictures at www.flower-pictures.co.uk).  I am also including information and photos from my recent trip to the Shetland Islands, which is such a special place.  I took hundreds of pictures there (maybe even thousands), so when I have sorted them out I will start writing my next post.