Nature Photography

Here’s a different shot of the leaf, framed a little more artistically.



LeafCam

That second shot is amazing.

Here are a few more macro shots using the new tripod for the iPhone. The tripod I used is the more portable Joby GorillaPod.

This is some variety of thyme.



ThymeCam

Here’s what I think is a more pleasing composition of the same plant as above:



MoreThymeCam

This Little Blue Flower turned out well, focus-wise:



LittleBlueFlowerCam

I got in my own way in this one (I think), the shadow of the camera falling on the flower. But it did turn out sharp:



PinkBudsCam

This is a leaf of tricolor sage. It’s a very pretty herb to grow in the garden. I’ll grant you that the individual leaf is nothing special. But the plant as a whole really works.



TriCam

I'm no expert on photography, but I know what I like and what impresses me, and I do enjoy the phenomenal detail you get with your photos (particularly the single-leaf photos, though their color tends to be a bit monochrome, of course).

It was a perfect day on the Left Coast. It was sunny and 77 at its peak. I took my newly-fixed mountain bike up into the foothills and did about ten miles. At the very top I ran into an old friend I hadn’t seen in a while. He tends to wend and worm his way into small community things. Turns out he has gate privileges at Ueland Tree Farm due to the volunteer work he does helping to maintain and expand the trails. He showed me a new one today and it was a very nice one. I may volunteer to help him next Wednesday if I can get away. And I’m pretty sure I can.

I took my tripod, iPhone tripod adapter, and macro snap-on lens with me. I found that I didn’t make use of the tripod so I’m not sure if I’ll bring that next time. But I did get some macro shots. First a couple non-macro shots.

I don’t know what kind of flower this is. The flower itself is not in focus but included it because I thought it was a pretty little shot. Nothing grand. Most of nature if very humble. When 99% of what you see out there is a shade of green, a little flower such as this really stands out:



FlowerCam


These next two I’m pretty sure are flowers of a wild blackberry vine:



BlackberryCam



BlackberryCam2

This plant is so ubiquitous, I forget what it’s called. But I think the leaves start out red when young and then turn green. That's an interesting reversal of what most leaves do. I don’t think it’s an Oregon grape. But it’s something like that. The colors are so intense. But it’s hard to capture the magic of these plants. Everything tends to flatten out in a photo.



GrapeCam

Now for some macro shots.

It was getting warm and I had chugged up a lot of incline by the time I got to a small clearing where the sun was backlighting some familiar flowers. I’ll have you know I nearly fainted twice capturing these images for you. It’s sort of like a biathlon. You get off your bike, huffing and puffing, get down on the ground and try as best you can to hold the camera steady. Twice when I went to rise again I got a little light-headed momentarily.



DandyCam



DandyCam2



DandyCam3

I hit the Ueland Tree Farm trails today hooking up with the friend I ran into the other day. He recruited me and my brother for a trail repair and upgrade work party.

I squeezed off a “photo burst” of 9 photos choosing five of them (including the first and the last) to made a “stack” out of them per these instructions in order to get a nice blur on the water. Unlike a DSLR camera, attempting to control shutter speeds on a phone is hit-and-miss even if you find an app that will allow this level of control. These phones just aren’t made for it.

But there are work-arounds. So on my iPhone, I just squeezed the shutter and held it down in order to take a “burst” of photos. Your phone might work differently (and/or allow you to set the exact number of photos in your burst).

In the video, this guy simply tried to hold his camera still and took several shots over a few seconds (and thus achieved a more pronounce feathery blur for the water). I think the series of 9 shots in my burst was over in a second or so. If I set up a tripod and took five or six shots stretch over about 2 seconds, I could have achieved an even softer look for the water. And I might do that next time.

But it worked pretty good as it was.



WaterfallCam

My first lupin flower.



LupinCam



LupinCloseupCam

The tricolor sage and the lemon balm sharing a border.



BorderCam