Macro Flowers

[iwatkins]

Hi All,

Haven't posted much for a while, so here comes a bit of a flood. All images in this (and other posts) taken this past week.

Flowers below are two shots of the flower of a Christmas Cactus (don't know its real name byt flowers around Janaury). The other is of a rose that was given to the missus at an Indian restaurant the other night (every female gets one at the end of their meal).

All shots with Canon 10D, tripod mounted using the Sigma 105mm Macro. Lighting was window light with a little reflected back in with a Lastolite.

Cheers

Ian


Christmas Cactus 1

http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~iwatkins/Gallery/flower2.jpg


Christmas Cactus 2

http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~iwatkins/Gallery/flower3.jpg


Red Rose

http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~iwatkins/Gallery/flower1.jpg

[JoseC]

Very nice macro shots.
My prefered is the last one (rose)
Best Regards
Jose

[iwatkins]

Thanks Jose.

I too like the rose shot the best.

However, I kept getting worried about the strange purple fuzzy bits on the petals. Also appeared on my printouts and thought it must be some kind of gamut thingy (technical term).

Anyway, went and looked at the rose again, as it does indeed look like that. The purple shade is the velvet texture of the petal itself.

This is what I enjoy about macro shots. It makes you actually look at the item in question very closely and you discover something you haven't seen before. :)

Cheers

Ian

[marie]

the flower shots are beautiful Ian

I love the first shot especially
its like something beautiful just gliding through the air.
an unusual shot of that wonderful flower

and the rose in the last shot is very very lovely and rich looking

some petals come out like that in shots I take also.
I expect they were just getting ready to fall off, their beautiful life completed :)

best wishes
marie

[iwatkins]

Hi Marie,

Thanks for the comments. Number 1 works well doesn't it. Number 2 not so much. Number 1 actually took 30 odd shots to get right because I was trying to get the black background by ensuring there was enough light to make a very fast shutter speed. Not easy when you are using natural light and it is raining outside (again).

Great fun though and I don't have to go outside and get soaked to do them :)

Cheers

Ian