Spring Lupine Photo

Photographer’s Note

Fresno, California

Scene
This beautiful wildflower is one of the many varieties of Lupine found in California. This specimen is a spring variety that dies back as summer approaches and was found along a new freeway embankment in SE Fresno.

Background
My wife and I have traveled past this construction zone many times in the last 3-4 weeks as the annual wildflower explosion has begun. This afternoon we went to a county park that we had just heard about that supposedly has a lot birds in residence. On the way back we passed the construction zone with about 30-40 minutes of sunlight left and decided to stop. I took the requisite landscape and color scenes as my wife wandered off to find some other scene. I caught up with her and discovered this blue lupine surround with different heights of grass highlighted by poppies and daisy like flowers. I was not satisfied with the results of my normal lenses so I took out the 200mm zoom. Mounting the lens on the tripod I set up low and right at the minimum focusing distance for the 200mm end of the zoom lens. This is the result – sun just out of the lens to the left and lots of backlight.

avene, banaei_nikon, Photo65Net, feather, BWJ, plimrn, gunbud, jhm, Wandering_Dan, xuaxo has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

avene (10944) 2009-03-10 20:40

hi John,
the clarity is absolutely amazing, it feels as if the photo was painted on glass (no idea if this sentence makes any sence, but there IS a glass-like quality to the shot). patterns of leaves, light and shadow in the foreground is fascinating, and makes everything very delicate, even fragile (glass again). excellent work, and I welcome all reminders that the spring is actually close, it was close to freezing today in NYC...

regards,
Kristine

[2]

banaei_nikon (775) 2009-03-10 21:08

Hi John
Impressive moment captured
Good shot. Nice macro....good contrast. Good efforts.
Well done..
**MAB**

PJE (19417) 2009-03-10 21:10

John excellent lighting in this lupine photo. I love the framing setup and the background complementary colors. Waiting for spring to come with a passion. Thanks for sharing.

pboehringer (770) 2009-03-10 21:11

John,
quite interesting to see our home through your lens especially to realize that this shot is fresh as it gets. You got it today and posted it at the very same day. The light was certainly very good but the temperature in Fresno was far away from inspiring some Spring feelings. Very interesting to see that shot done with a focal length of 200mm. The boukeh does complete sense.
Peter

[2] +

edytungkal (4519) 2009-03-10 21:14

A perfect macro shot with beautiful subject, that nice colours and well sharpness really got my attention. Very good one John and tfs...

daniel

Photo65Net (43084) 2009-03-11 4:39

Hello John,
Nice natural image.
I like a lot these vivid colors, and your DOF management.
Have a nice day,
JB.

BlueRaven (35) 2009-03-11 5:45

Hi John,

Here around Munich (and other areas of Europe, too) we can only dream of such signs of spring these days. We're still getting lots of snow and rain - a shot like this makes it easier to bear. A wonderful sign of spring. Beautiful colours, amazing clarity and light.

Superb shot, thanks for sharing!
Claudia

mg3836 (31) 2009-03-11 9:10

Great shot! Love the colors.

jonathan_hart (22570) 2009-03-11 12:29

colors and light, the photo is better for TL, but it's beautiful for sure
jc

feather (49858) 2009-03-11 16:12

What a beauty John. I find macro photography the most challenging genre (probably after wildlife, but for different reasons) and you came up trumps with this one. The backlighting works very well as do the out of focus orange poppies as a background. excellent!
Kath

[2]

BWJ (1771) 2009-03-11 19:35

Hello John,
This is a brilliantly crisp, clear, colorful and vibrant photo of the Lupine. The background blur brings out the clarity of the image even more and the lighting is superb. It could not be better!
Kind regards,
Betty

vincz (19039) 2009-03-12 1:20

Such a masterpice. Clours are stunning at the same bright so braight and so delicate.DO is perfect, sahrpness as well. What a great one.

plimrn (19602) 2009-03-13 11:53

Hi John,
I love this very creative weork; you got the DOF just right and the color is lovely. Well done!! I agree with Kristine's comment, the backlight gives a magical translucence.
HLJ, Pat

stego (22350) 2009-03-13 15:23

Hi John,
The remarkable technique allows us to enjoy the simple but stunning beauty of the flower. The use of f2.8 could be risky for the clarity, because of the very short DOF, but it was a good bet, because the bokeh is just wonderful.
Regards, José.

gunbud (27789) 2009-03-14 8:15

Hi John,
Lovely macro of this beautiful wild flower that is well suited for the vertical fromat.
The clors are subtle and ture with excellent sharpness and a lovely muted backdrop.
In these parts the lupines don't show up till early June.
Regards, Tom

jhm (82319) 2009-03-16 5:48

Hello John,

Also in Belgium get we spring time, I am very happy, I like the summer and high temperatures.
Also of flowers and good smell aromas
I like how you framed of the splendid flower.
Sharpness and clarity are superb.
Nice composition and good presentation. TFS.

Best regards,
John.

Wandering_Dan (3213) 2009-03-19 20:28

Hi, John -

Very nice! Amazing clarity and color on the center stalk. You might consider blurring the greenery in the fg corners; I find it distracting from the main flower. I tried a WS, but I don't really do selective blurring very well (I need to learn masks), so I didn't post it.

We haven't seen too many wildflowers here in the Bay Area yet, but we're a little colder, and they should be coming 'round any day now. I'm inspired by this shot go hunting!

Best,
Dan

derek3755 (2341) 2009-03-23 11:21

Hi John

Certainly a beautiful spring shot, nicely composed, great light, and using the 200mm with a small dof and getting evrything except for the lupine out of focus really makes it a compelling image.

Regards
Derek

xuaxo (5703) 2009-10-26 11:25

Hi John,
Just wonderful. A beautiful detail of the wildflower. Wonderful light and color.
Greetings,
F.