My Big Macro Mistake Corrected: Florida Sensitive Brier. And the Plumped-in-Place Technique

What’s Up?

On Monday morning it was a bit breezy hot and humid so I spent most of my morning session scouting for wildflowers. I did find some nice new stuff and wound up photographing what I think was Tenangle Pipewort and a lovely Pink –not sure which one.

I upped my swim to 66 lengths, 3/4 mile. In addition to my cardio-bursts I have added ten easy minutes on the StairMaster.

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SONY e-Guide Discount Program

Purchase a (new) qualifying SONY camera body (a7r iii, a7r iv, a9, a9 ii) from Bedfords or using a BIRDS AS ART B&H affiliate link, and you will receive a $40 discount on the SONY e-guide. Purchase a (new) SONY 200-600mm G lens from Bedfords or using a BIRDS AS ART B&H affiliate link, and you will receive a $25 discount on the SONY e-guide. Purchase a (new) SONY 600mm f/4 GM lens from Bedfords or using a BIRDS AS ART B&H affiliate link, and you will receive a free SONY e-guide with one or two videos.

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Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

This image was created on 24 MAY 2020 along a ditch on a side-street several blocks from my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. I used the Induro GIT 404L/FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sigma APO Macro 150mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM lens for Nikon F with the Vello Select Nikon F Lens to Sony E-Mount Camera Auto Lens Adapter (Firmware Ver. 6) and the 61-MP Sony Alpha a7R IV Mirrorless Digital Camera Body. ISO 400. Exposure determined by experimentation with the best exposure determined by RawDigger: 1/100 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. AWB at 8:11am on a cloudy morning. Manual Focus using techniques from the SONY e-Guide. Click on the image to see a larger version. Florida Sensitive Brier

My Big Macro Mistake Corrected …

For decades I have been teaching bird photographers that when they are photographing large groups of birds, it is imperative to focus on the closest bird. I failed to follow my own advice the first time that I photographed Florida Sensitive Brier by focusing beyond the closest little gold thingies. Having something out of focus in front of the subject is generally an image wrecker; I deleted all of the images from the first session. For today’s featured image, I made sure to focus on the closest little gold thingies. Using the Focus Magnfier/Manual focusing technique that is detailed in The Sony Camera User’s e-Guide (see same above), makes macro photography pretty much a walk-in-the-park as long there is no breeze or provided that you can keep the subject absolutely still. See Lesson One on that below.

The more that I work with the Sigma 150mm macro/Vello Adapter/a7r iv rig the more proficient I become. If I can keep the blossoms completely, still everything is easy …

This image was created on 24 MAY 2020 aloong a ditch on a side-street several blocks from my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. I used the Induro GIT 404L/FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sigma APO Macro 150mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM lens for Nikon F with the Vello Select Nikon F Lens to Sony E-Mount Camera Auto Lens Adapter (Firmware Ver. 6) and the 61-MP Sony Alpha a7R IV Mirrorless Digital Camera Body. ISO 400. Exposure determined by experimentation with the best exposure determined by RawDigger: 1/100 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. AWB at 8:11am on a cloudy morning. Manual Focus using techniques from the SONY e-Guide. Click on the image to see a larger version. Florida Sensitive Brier

Plamped-in-Place

The best-case scenario for wildflower photography is a dead still day with zero breezes. Such conditions are very rare, and when they do occur — usually in the early morning, they do not last long. In general, cloudy days are to be preferred as the clouds eliminate shadows. In addition, when it is sunny, the air heats and moves and the resulting air currents move the flowers constantly. One of the best ways to solve this problem is to use the Plamped-in-Place solution. As you can ssee above, I set up a spare tripod about 15 inches from the blossom.I attached a Wimberley Plamp II to the tripod with the sturdy, powerful clamp jaws (black with the orange tips) and then held the flower gently in place with the lightweight (black and white) clamp. The beauty of this solution is that when you are done, you carefully remove the lightweight clamp from the stem of the flower and pack your gear. The flower is left growing in place as if you were never there.

There are many ways to use the Wimberley Plamp II; I will be sharing additional Plamp techniques here with you in future blog posts.

The Art of Flower Photography, a 203 page eBook/a link to the PDF will be sent via e-mail: $29.00.

The Art of Flower Photography by Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris

You can learn everything e about this e-book here, or order your copy here.

Video: The Art of Flower Photography

In this B&H Event Space video, two of the world’s premier photographers of flora and fauna — Arthur Morris and Denise Ippolito — share the techniques they use to create dramatic, sharp, well-composed, properly exposed images of flowers and flower fields. Denise does great things with the Canon 100mm f/2.8 L IS lens, while artie often goes to longer focal lengths—he has been seen photographing tulips at Keukenhoff Gardens, Holland, with a 600mm lens and a teleconverter. In addition to standard techniques, the video ends with Ippolito and Morris showing a wide range of abstract floral images and describing a variety of creative artistic effects such as multiple exposures, sharp/soft blending, texture overlays, warping a flower, creating zoom/twirls, in-camera blurs, and many others.

Click here to see the video.

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Typos

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