Oooh, pretty flowers!
Amy and I went to San Antonio recently and one morning I got out the camera and started focusing on my mother-in-law’s flower beds (full gallery here).
One of the more successful techniques I discovered was taking pictures “through” another flower. I’d get the camera lens very close to say an orange flower and take pictures of the flowers behind it. Due to diffraction, the light waves bend around the closer flower so that you can still see what’s behind it.
The effect looks like an impressionist painting, where everything in the photo is soft as opposed to sharp and hard edges. This picture is probably the best I obtained and it hasn’t been altered beyond basic color correction.
I was also able get pictures like this. You’re seeing two yellow flowers through an orange flower.
And the smorgasbord of colors allowed for endless compositions playing with the depth of field.
Of course flowers weren’t the only thing in the garden. Amy’s parents have two cats that were interested in what I was doing. Here’s Zio.
And this would be Chester.
Maybe some day you’ll rub off and Zio and Chester will be poster kitties for the “Cats Indoors” movement… otherwise, the 2nd and 3rd marigold shots are awesome =)
While I very much like my inlaws, I’m not holding my breath for their participation in the cats indoors movement. Oh well. On the bright side, at least it gave me a couple of nice pictures.