The botanical gardens is a beautiful place and one that I have visited many times both socially with family and friends and with high school for photography excursions. Coming to a place that I have spent a lot of time in I decided to divert my attention to looking at it from a new perspective. Instead of focusing on the plants and scenery of the gardens I focused on the animals (which is one aspect I have been exploring lately!) Using low angles to better view the perspective of the small insects that inhabit the gardens I waited patiently for them to sit still long enough for me to compose and focus the image. Usual I vary the settings that I use between, auto and AV I took the challenge to shoot entirely on manual. This was a new experience and challenge to not rely on the brilliance of my cameras automatic settings and have a play around with the manual functions. I enjoyed taking photographs of the delicate wings of the dragonflies that flew quickly around the small pond at the gardens, and it took a few precarious positions over the water to get some better angles. All in all it was a wonderful opportunity for our first location shoot to explore the elements of photography surrounded by the mystery of nature.
Just going to add a few photographs of some dragonflies that were nice enough to stay still for me =]
Halo
Canon 40D, Lens: Canon 70 -200mm f/4 USM, 1/600, F/5.6, ISO 800
The two things that i tried to creat were space and leading lines. The empty space lets the focal point be directed to the centre of the photography where a little blue dragonfly rests on a leaf. The leaf itself also directs the attention to the focal point. The lighting is also lighter directly around the insect which seems to frame the little bug. =]
Flight By Night
Canon 40D, 70-200mm F/4 USM, 1/5000, F/5.6, ISO 800
This photograph is definitely underexposed. I have another one where it is considerably lighter but it meant that the background was a washed out grey. I actually liked the darkness of it; something made it stand out from the lighter images and made it sort of peculiar. It showed a nice crisp contrast between the leaf and the dragonfly/blackness.
Goggles
Canon EOS 40D, Lens: Canon 70 -200mm f/4 USM, Shutter: 1/600, F/5.6, ISO 800
Last photograph is again another little dragonfly; I’m just posting a few as I really enjoyed taking photographs of insects as it is something I have not attempted until last Wednesday. This photograph is the most detailed of the three and has the largest DOF allowing more of the insect to be in focus. I think I might need to do a bit more playing around with DOF to see what works best with insects.
Just too add a few extra favs from the day =]
Bee Happy
Curler
Cosy
Cold Fire
Little Man
Leaf Me Alone
Feed Me
Soft
Munch
Tiny Planets
Purple Haze
