What to do on a rainy day... Some flowery macros.

elven

What do you do when the weather sucks?

I was going to go to the Botanic Gardens this weekend but the light has been flat and crap, so i bought some flowers and did some macro/not so macro work in front of the window in the spare room instead.

Tomorrow the lisianthus should have opened a bit more to give me a different perspective and I also hope to set up a reflector to minimise the shadows on the right. Might also buy some different flowers since I'm quite into this flowery malarkey just now.

Suggestions/c&c very welcome, sometimes you look at your own pictures too long and don't spot something obvious...

lisianthus pics

Fajitas!

I like them. The uncluttered background makes a great difference from the usual clutter you see!

Fionn

i took some shots of the water on my car and on leaves and stuff, haven't looked at them yet

Fionn

thank god for digital, if i was using rolls of film I'd be broke by now. Most of the shots were fuzzy out of focus wretched images - all consigned to the recycle bin!!
my hand must have been steady for this one, although i don't really know what i was doing or what it's about. i'll settle on abstract art

elven

The lines are quite good on this but I think it would have been better without the dark patch in the lower right corner.

joolsveer

I like your flower shots elven. Did you set up right at the window? Can you outline how you went about it please?
The only macro shots I am not very keen on are those of insects like praying mantis just about to chew off another's head.

elven

Yup, I set it up right at the window, literally balanced a piece of card (I got black and white mountboard from easons) on the windowsill for the background and used a variety of surfaces at different heights to try and get the flower in front of the card and close to the window. I've gone and left my tripods in storage in Glasgow and I went and got a wee tiny one in Jessops but it isn't much cop so I hand held most shots - I zoomed right in on the flower and metered from there, turned out I could get away with 1/125 @ 5.6 so I just set it to manual with those settings and away I went...

mike65

I find them a bit too subtle! I 'd have gone for a more contrasting light and then saturated the colour slightly.

Mike.

Fionn

yes, your right! that dark spot should have been cropped out

i think tho, your rainy day project was a lot better than mine. Course i don't understand what 1/125 @ 5.6 is yet so i'm still on the green square on my cam