A Winning Image & The Magic of Spring

Dung Fly

 So, in my last post (sic) I talked about the difficulty of getting good, high quality macro images and I may have been rather gloomy about my prospects in the Nature Competition I entered in Wadebridge Photography Group this week. Well, I was surprised and delighted to find myself the winner in the PDI (Projected Digital Images) section of the competition in the face of some quite stiff competition, especially from Adrian Langdon whom I previously named as probably the best wildlife photographer in the County. 

Tech stuff for the curious and the nerdy:

• Fujifilm XT-5
• Zeiss Touit 50mm f/2.8 Macro Lens
• Single Image 1/125s @f/11
• AK flash diffuser & Godox TT350f
• ISO 400
• Location: Lanjeth Water Gardens

So, a feather in the cap, but I need to go on refining and improving this techniques, particularly the AK flash diffuser. To that end, I've been working on my macro focus stacking in order to get quality results. For test purposes, I used seed heads which have developed from Hardy Orchids in a bowl which was sat outside my greenhouse all winter. Seed heads, which are technically fruit are relatively static therefore slightly easier to take pictures of as they don't change from day to day. Or so I thought...

Anyway, the image below is one constructed from 20 focus-stacked images, converted to mono to remove some extraneous colour casts in the background, then recoloured to look somewhat like the original. Interestingly, it now looks like one of those Victorian colorised images often seen in seaside postcards of the era, but I digress. I think the results are acceptable, but on final review,  it may have benefitted from having additional focus stacked images beyond the last one. Improvements needed therefore.

So, I thought a static subject such as this can be revisited at any time. But what I hadn't taken into account was the British Weather, a term I have emboldened intentionally. No not the drizzle, mist and low cloud which seems to have been our constant companions since the New Year, but a day of non-stop sunshine, the first this year. And that seemed to send a message to the seed heads of these Hardy  Orchids, seed heads that had been sat there for a whole year since the previous year's flowering. And that message said: 'Spring is here, let go of your seed' So, each one of these hard, woody seed heads just opened cracks identical to each other so their seed could be released on a single warm and sunny Spring day. Just magic and evidence of how evolved these organisms. So, I'm gonna have to photograph them some more. What a pain in the ass (not) 😁

Opened Orchid Seed Head 

I suppose the lesson learnt here is that paying close  and detailed attention to a specific subject can yield results far beyond the ordinary and lead you down rabbit holes you might not ever emerge from. 

Thank you for reading this blog about my very small success in a Photography Group competition. What do YOU think about such competitions, irrelevant OR essential to development as an image maker? More soon.👍