Hard to believe that this is SPRING – and that the unofficial launch of summer starts this weekend with the (in)famous May Long Weekend. Oh, how many May long weekend camping trips were washed out by the torrents of rain; how many "May Long" Fridays did we all sit on the patio at Earls, with toques and mits on, shivering like jello, margueritas frozen a bit more than was drinkable, welcoming the summer despite the freakish cold. "Weather be damned – it’s IS the launch of summer, and we’ll do it without heat!" Big mistake ha ha.
So it’s no surprise the weather is uncooperative yet again this year. But I have been thinking about the rare orchid field trips and I have a quite a bit of interest. One of the most freqently asked question about the orchid and flower photos is how I always get the "nice blue sky" in thebackground?
Well, I am forced to reveal one of my biggest macro photo secrets. It’s not the sky. It’s a jcloth – you know, those disposable dish rags? You can get them everywhere. They work better for photography once they have been washed a few times to make them more drapey and soft. All I do is carry one in my bag, and use it as a background to any shot I like. It just gets draped over the other vegetation or in some cases I will drape it over my bag if there is no other object or plants to hang it on. I over expose by 1/2 to 1/3 stop, keep the apertures big (around 2.8 depending on the light and time of day – I really love the creamy bokeh of a shallow DOF!!!), and make my shot. Instant "blue sky." Give it a try next time you are doing close up photos, especially of plants – the added colour really gives the image some POP.
Now… if only I had a jcloth about 30 miles high and 100 miles wide, this could turn out to be a terrific long weekend!
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