Variety… « Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Variety...

This 3-frame in-camera Art Vivid HDR image was created at Lisse, Holland on the recently concluded Tulip IPT with the tripod-mounted Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS EF USM AF Lens(at 24mm) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital camera body ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop yielded a base exposure of: 1/250 sec. at f/13 in Manual mode.

Central sensor/AI Servo Rear Focus AF on the foreground flowers and recompose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

Image A

When even the remotest possibility of doing some serious land-scape or bird-scape work with a short lens exists, I make sure to have a Wimberley P-5 plate and my Giottos MH 1302-655 Ballhead in my vest. It takes less than two minutes to mount the plate on the camera body, spin off the Mongoose M3.6, and replace it with the tiny ballhead.

Variety…

The Spice of Life

When I saw the beautiful storm clouds I immediately thought, “wide angle in-camera Art Vivid HDR.” It took me only a minute of so to spin off the Mongoose M3.6, mount the Giottos MH 1302-655 Ballhead on the tripod, attach the P-5 plate to the 5D III, and mount the rig. For the image above I went as wide as possible to maximize the clouds.

This 3-frame in-camera ArtVivid HDR image was created at Lisse, Holland on the recently concluded Tulip IPT with the tripod-mounted Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS EF USM AF Lens(at 24mm) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital camera body ISO 100. Evaluative metering +1 stop yielded a base exposure of: 1/30 sec. at f/13 in Manual mode.

Central sensor/AI Servo Rear Focus AF 1/2 way into the foreground flowers and recompose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

Image B

Again, with the Giottos MH 1302-655 Ballhead as described above.

More Flowers

Here I simply pointed the camera down a bit to place more emphasis on the flowers. Don’t ask me why I was at ISO 50….

This 3-frame in-camera ArtVivid HDR image was created at Lisse, Holland on the recently concluded Tulip IPT with the tripod-mounted Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS EF USM AF Lens(at 24mm) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital camera body ISO 100. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop yielded a base exposure of: 1/60 sec. at f/10 in Manual mode.

Central sensor/AI Servo Rear Focus AF 1/2 way into the foreground flowers and recompose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

Image C

Again, with the Giottos MH 1302-655 Ballhead as described above.

Lots of Flowers

For the final image in the series I pointed the camera way down to make the rows of flowers the stars of the show. No matter which of these images you like best, the lesson is obvious: variety is the spice of life so be sure to vary your framing and compositions no matter your subject.

The Best Image?

I firmly believe that one of the three images above is clearly stronger than the other two. Which do you think is strongest? Be sure to let us know why.

Next Year In Holland

Despite a 100-year record cold spring with very few tulip fields in bloom this trip has been a spectacular success. The colors and variety of tulips at Keukenhof simply stun the mind and the senses. Denise and I are planning our Holland trip for next year: the Keukenhof Creative Tulip Photography IPT with a Touch of Holland. If you are a Happy Camper who is interested in joining us, please shoot me an e-mail.

EOS-5D Mark III

For more on this great camera check out “It Ain’t Just Birds; Why I Love My EOS-5D Mark III.” To learn how I set up my 5D Mark III for in-camera HDR check out the 5D Mark III User’s Guide. Learn more about this great camera in “A Dozen Fun and Funky Reasons.”

Typos

On all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂

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17 comments to Variety…

  • avatar Neil Hickman

    Number 3. Two steps to the right and two steps forward may have removed those bare patches which some don’t like and also kept the composition.

  • I think Image C definitely has strength…but it kind of peters out at the bottom and right hand edges where the flowers also peter out. If the rows of flowers had been complete, I think without question Image C would have been the most impactful. It’s a contest between A and B…and I think B, for me, wins out with a bit more balance between the sky and the flowery foreground. I like the greater amount of blue sky and punchier colors in A, but the flowers take up so little of the frame…

    Anyway, interesting to see all the tulips closed up like that. I grow tulips in my yard, and while the majority of them have blooms on them, because of the continuing very cold weather here in Colorado (which, as luck would have it, finally seems to have ended today!), they are closed up into colorful little pointed gems like the ones in your photo. I hope to see my flowers in full bloom before their time runs out…first year when all of them have bloomed (only first started planting the bulbs a couple years ago.)

  • avatar Julian Mole

    Hi Artie,

    This isn’t as clear cut as I first thought! However I’d have to say I prefer #3 best due to the very strong converging lines in the image, starting bottom right with the dark earth track and running to the top left and the tiny distant buildings, my eye comes back down the left hand track and then takes in the rest of the photo in a counter-clockwise circle. It feels comfortable, nicely balanced, unlike #1 which as much as I like the sky I feel it is too much in competition with the flowers at the bottom and which results in my eye unsure where to look!
    So, I’ve showed my working out, I now wait to be taught the lesson! 😉

  • avatar Andrea Boyle

    I like the third one best. It shows more of the resaon you went there! (the flowers). The lines draw me into the picture and besides, I have cloudy skies in Oregon! 🙂

  • avatar Steve P

    Number 1 for me also, because they flowers come across as swaths of color, not collections of blossoms. The result is intense, appealing color.
    I like the ground/sky balance of the second one. I’d call it a keeper. That’s probably the one I would have taken had I been there.
    The third is not a keeper. Too much cluttered brown earth and straw in the foreground.

  • When I first saw #1 on the back of your camera I thought it was great, still do but I am leaning towards #2 with a little more punch. The clouds are wonderful. Then there is #3 with more of the flowers- I think if the flower rows were complete this one would be my fave.

  • Image 2 is the best of the three because it shows off more flowers. The first one lays a lot of emphasis on the sky, but not enough on the brightly coloured flowers. The third one has too much ground detail which spoils it.

  • It’s number 1. It seems u applied Hyper Focal Focusing here. Everything seems balanced.

    However, inclusion of the ground to fill up at least 1/3 of the image might have made it livelier. But then, that’s my personal opinion.

    Bottomline is; I respect and love Arthur the Bird Photography Guru.

    • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

      Did not use hyperfocal distance. If you want 1/3 foreground see #2 :). Thanks for your more than kind guru comments; they are greatly appreciated. Sending love back at you. artie

  • avatar Deirdre Sheerr-Gross

    Hands down: Image #1:
    Mr Art Morris & Mr Art Vivid really turned out a stunning photo…
    The composition was what caught my eye…
    I thought of Andre Agassi sighting where he was going to hit a down the line winner…
    Loved how you pulled us in…
    Thx

  • avatar Brian Jones

    I like the third one. Lower perspective and like Paul K said, the lines draw me me in too. The foreground off to right, with the texture of the grass, also adds another point of interest.

  • avatar Peter T.

    The first one is the favourite, dramatic sky over coloured field.
    Lines in between orange tulips are distracting for me and leading my sight out of the pictures.

  • avatar Richard Lethbridge

    Image number one is my favourite. It is more dramatic and the blue sky
    is very attractive too.

  • avatar Paul Keeble

    Image C for me – more defining detail in the foreground and those lines are just dragging me into and through the picture.

  • My favorite is the first one. There’s something about the steeper (if that’s a good word) angle of the top row of flowers leading to the upper left.

    Doug