One year ago today, as I playing with my $1,000 toy, I took my first pictures of hibiscuses. These flowers are, for me, incredibly difficult to photograph artistically; I have only shot three that I believe are good enough for the photoblog:
Hibiscuses are important because they began my shooting affair with insects. As well as I can remember, stalking butterflies and their six-legged kin began like this: One sunny afternoon in July, probably after snapping some more overexposed portraits of my dogs, I took a few shots of the hibiscuses in Elizabeth's front yard. I remember thinking to myself, What hackneyed subjects, as I pressed the shutter button. But when I dumped the images into the computer, I was amazed at the detail in the petal texture and stamens. I realized that I had never really seen hibiscuses before; they had been just blobs of color hanging off shrubs I passed.
Elizabeth's hibiscuses were doing poorly last summer—everything required a year to recover after the three hurricane whippings of 2004—so I had few flowers to photograph. We decided to visit Leu Gardens, where we expected to find plenty of hibiscuses for me to shoot.
Leu Gardens was overrun with flowers, but not hibiscuses that first trip. The blooms of the other plant species were, however, full of insect activity. I reasoned that a flower picture would be nice, but a flower-insect combo shot would help the photo rise slightly above roll-your-eyes totally overdone to mere conventional, and the bug chase was on.
In those days, with the original 15 - 85 mm lens that came with the camera, I shot autofocus in "portrait" mode. As I was always taking pictures of my basenjis, portrait mode worked well, reducing the poorly landscaped backyard to a swirl of gauzy colors. Because I knew nothing about aperture settings, ISOs, and the like, I didn't realize that portrait mode was too slow for busy insects. When I first viewed the images that I took that day at Leu Gardens, recollecting the beautiful bees and butterflies I had aimed at, I was totally disappointed with the crappy fuzzy images on the computer screen, and the challenge was on. So I have worked on getting from bee blur ...
to in-focus bee butt ...
to a bee photo I kind of like:
I have always liked bugs, so taking portraits of them has been very enjoyable. I am a firm believer in nuturing new interests, and I enjoy learning to identify and understand the behavior of the creatures I am observing. Last summer, I couldn't identify lantana from pentas or butterflies from moths [I mistook skippers for moths]. I didn't know dragonflies were carnivores and ate butterflies. I couldn't distinguish a carpenter bee from a bumble bee, choosing just to get out of their way to avoid being stung.
I still prefer "feeling" the camera rather than understanding all of the many numbers and setting associated with photography. My excuse is that insects are so fast that I must let the camera do some of the work. But I do know that I need the 300 mm for the best pictures of dragonflies, the very fast focusing 28 - 105 mm for bees in flight. I know that a clear picture, though, is nothing special if it is bug butt poking at the lens. So I have also learned from observation when to anticipate the head shot I prefer. I know that I should have the sun at my back, but I'll get the best pictures if the day is overcast. And I try not to drop my hand as I mash the shutter button. I am also learning to use the more sophisticated features of graphics programs. I still prefer my old Corel Photo-Paint 12 but have purchased and begun experimenting with Photoshop.
I think after a year's experimentation, I have made some progress. I know clearly what I want when I find a subject; I just have to be better about insisting the camera give it to me.
