~ Photography by Pat Beaudoin, Sioux Lookout Photographer
I’m really enjoying the colour in these pseudo-Cone Flowers, new to my yard this year. Quick shot with the last of the evening’s light, at 50mm.
I ran for my camera when I noticed the Irises beginning to bloom. As I snapped along, I thought of my mom as I always do; many years ago after a visit in Thunder Bay, I dragged home a large clump of these Irises from her yard and they have graced my yard since, ever moving and spreading and eventually shared with my daughters as well. Now that she’s no longer with us, each new bloom is a cheerful reminder of her.
I was also thinking about how difficult I find Irises to capture, I’ve just never caught them from an angle that made them very attractive to me – they always looked the same and other than their rich deep colour, were never satisfiying. I even wondered why I was bothering again.
Well, I finally managed to go on and get just ONE shot where I liked the angle I caught the flower from – and one was enough! The background is very different, a bit busy for my norm, but I liked the feel of it for a change. I think a reddish wooden fence in the background is responsible for the red tones and I processed it high-key to emphasize the peeking light that was scattered about.
I am really enjoying this one… thanks Mom!
We’ve had an early warm Spring with all my trees in full bloom this year. I took some time over the last couple of weeks to photo a few examples before the wind and rain took them all away last week.
My favourite, the Artificial Crabapple tree. Beautiful blossoms but you cannot eat the fruit that follows. A ton of chubby bees were loving these as well.
A “real” Crabapple tree Pincherry
Seems to be lots of these in bloom…
The first four images were taken with a Macro 100mm lens. The last two are Lensbaby images, close up with the zoom lens… I think!
Lensbaby plus a +10 Macro accessory
With the cold temperatures last week I resorted to some macro work indoors for a few days. The florist introduced me to this Eggplant or Black Calla Lily. Quite an exotic colour and one I hadn’t seen before; from a short distance I did think it was black initially. The light brought out the reds and the texture, making it even more of an interesting subject.
However, it also proved quite challenging to photograph. The dark colour made it difficult to distinguish the details of the flower through the view finder, although that just might be these old eyes. I wondered about it being coated it was so reflective itself – do they wax these things? I used the natural light of a large north-facing window with a small diffuser.
I tried a variety of backgrounds but none did it for me. I would love to try the flower again, but outdoors in even summer light with natural greens behind it; I think the results would be more satisfying.
All but the last image were taken with a Macro lens 100mm at f/4 – f/22. I didn’t find that the unique blur of the Lensbaby lent itself well to this particular flower; the last image is with that lens, plus the macro accessory at f/4. This beautiful lily is just not a soft flower…
Not much time for photography during this busy season, however, I did want to stop and wish everyone a Happy Christmas!
Truthfully I enjoyed these few minutes away from all the preparations with my camera… . hopefully I’ll get out for some seasonal shots soon to add to this theme.
The poinsettia was taken with the LensBaby Composer plus the Macro accessory.
The thumbnail images are the result of a fun photo excursion with my 11 year-old grandson on December 23rd. Justin brought home his wonderful interpretation of Xmas lights with my Canon PowerShot G5 and a whole lot of movement – a reminder for us adults to “just try it” and see what happens! The day was grey and almost over for my landscape shot but it verifies that we do indeed have more than enough snow for Xmas.
I like the movement in this floral and the painterly feel to the background. It was taken on a windy day, with some back lighting. Normally I would grab my macro lens for a floral, but this time I got up close with the 17-55mm IS at f/2.8 and I really liked the results. More to follow…
The original image was converted to black and white with one of my favourite Lightroom presets, after which I just tweaked my way along to make it my own.
This is not a good summer for phototography… rain, rain, rain. Since flowers are quickly and easily accessible in my yard, that is mainly where I have been using my camera. The gentle curves of the Calla Lily are especially beautiful to me.
These were taken with the Lensbaby Composer plus the Macro accessory.
Marchington River
My personal favourite… Simple Bunchberries Stormy water
Well, normally that is true but we received snow instead for both months and no spring flowers as a result. However, I did get these beautiful Tulips for Mother’s Day and spent two enjoyable afternoons photographing them, indoors and outdoors. Tulips are becoming a favourite of mine to photo, I love their delicate, trim lines. 
