I have been wondering the landscape lately in search of summer color. It seems to be everywhere but eludes me in how to properly capture it. Oh the struggles of the photographer!
For the last couple of weeks I have kept one lens on the camera and that is my 70-200mm. One of the main reasons is because I don’t use this nearly enough or as much as I should. I usually have a much wider lens on trying to take in all the land and vast views that the prairie provides. This is fine but, I have noticed in doing that I miss a lot. Seems rather like an oxymoron that the more I take in the more I seem to miss. Hmm, is this really the case? Technically no probably not. I do think the more one takes in the more details one may miss. Aesthetically a photograph becomes simply an interpretation. First by the person taking the picture and second by the person viewing the picture. It is just as Ansel put it. “There are always two people in every photograph, the photographer and the viewer”. Quite an astute observation if I say so myself. Ansel brought much more to photography than just his wonderful photographs.
I found an area a few days ago that was loaded with blooming goldenrod. It was really quite stunning to see. I began playing around with some captures up close and zoomed in and done the same thing I have done recently with the closeups of the tallgrasses. I kept the field of focus shallow as possible. In this case with an aperture setting of f/4. I wasn’t real sure what I was going to end up with even after taking a couple dozen shots.
After working a few of these up in post processing the ones I liked the most were the ones that had just a few points of focus and a sort of glowing look to them. Goldenrod is great for images like this, it seems to glow naturally anyway.
Now that the goldenrod is making it’s appearance I feel the need to spend much more time in search of this wonderful summers delight. I do every year anyway but, there are times when certain wildflowers come into bloom that get me revved up once again. Goldenrod seems to have done that. But then, most things in nature has that effect on me!
© Brad Mangas
I love the look of goldenrod but my wife has an alergic reaction when it’s in season. I search it out on my own but I never got a photo this good of it. Gives me inspiration.
Thank you Ken, I can relate to the allergies, suffer a few of my own but glad goldenrod is not one of the causes. Stock up on the Kleenex!
Wow, Brad, this is gorgeous! And, the glow is even more prominent due to dark background.
Thank you Monte, I done some intentional under exposing jut to keep the yellow from all blowing out. Worked out good for that and the background.