Tuesday, September 11, 2012

A Little Plant Photography

I'm on a  bit of a new adventure now. I've decided to begin teaching myself more about plants. I hope there's still enough time in the warmer part of the year to accomplish something with this new quest. Along with learning about plants, I've decided that I want to also improve my photography.

I want to go from shooting anything that moves as quickly as I can to actually knowing and understanding better how to set up my photos. I want my pictures to look beautiful when I want them to. I already get lucky sometimes, but I mostly end up with stuff that looks like what I have for you today. It can look nice, but I have some room for improvement.

I have no idea what the plant is in the photo above. I only know that it's covered in those sharp spines. It also has these purple flowers that look similar to clover. These are things I know now that I should be observing. I used a flash on the camera to bring out the spines. Very small progress in both areas.

I do know what the above plant is. Can you guess by looking at the picture? This stuff grows wild all over this area. I'll take pictures of it, but I will never even touch the stuff. It's not poisonous or anything like that, but it can be illegal in the right circumstances.

I didn't get a better picture of this hemp weed than this one. I was in too much of a hurry. That's something else I need to teach myself; I need to slow down a bit. I need to take the time to examine my subjects a bit and to decide the best way to get a good picture.

I used the camera's flash on this one, and it seemed to work the best on a few things. These plants seemed to evade the camera's automatic focus. I need to slow down and remember to use the manual focus on some things. I don't need to hurry so much on non-moving targets.

I did remember those lessons after a bit of time. One more thing to learn is how to better use the light around me. I'm paying more attention to that, but I'm still learning. All of that will also help give me better pictures so I can better examine just what plants I might have.

You may have noticed the little yellow critter in the picture above. He'll be the subject of my next post. After remembering a few good photography lessons, I got some better pictures of him. I have no idea what he is yet, but I'll be looking to find out.

Wait! After a quick check, I found the identity of the bug! I'll share that information with you, as well as some better photos, in my next post. See you soon.

26 comments:

  1. Those are great photos of Bull Thistle. Grows here too, in Pennsylvania, all over, and often is covered all over with butterflies and all sorts of beetles.

    Enjoy your new passion. It's a lot of fun to try to get a good flower capture.

    Nanina

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    1. Thanks. I'll remember that it is bull thistle from now on. :)

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  2. They are some great shots of the thistle Ratty. I would have said it was a 'milk' thistle...But above it has been referred to as a 'bull' thistle. I had a look on the internet but I can't determine whether they are the same thistle or not as opinions differ. I do know we have one with identical characteristics grow in the UK.

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    1. It's possible that they are the same, but with a different name. Or they could be very closely related.

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  3. Photographs of plants are giving pleasure much, and getting new information about plants is an interesting adventure. I am greeting

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    1. I hope you have fun with my new adventure as I explore plants.

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  4. I only know them as thistle, and we have plenty of them here in Michigan too..I think you did well!

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    1. I only knew them as thistle too until some of the other great comments here. Hopefully I can keep learning.

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  5. Pretty sure it's a Bull Thistle. Your picture shows those spikes growing all the way around the stem very well.

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    1. That confirms it. I'll remember bull thistle from now on.

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  6. Lovely shots, being up close with macro can be fun, but shoot lots.I have a variety of tricks up my sleeve, we should go out and shoot together being fairly close.

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    1. I already do take a lot of pictures. I want to add a little more skill to that now. I bet I could learn a lot from you.

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  7. Now you know what it is. I hope you don't have Scottish ancestors. :)

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  8. Well I was going to say that I've seen a lot of that first one around here but don't know what it's called but I see Nanina does.
    I'm always in too much of a hurry too when I take my pictures. I don't put enough thought in to setting up the shot

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    1. One of my big goals now is to slow down with my pictures. I almost forgot again until I read your comment.

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  9. Funny enough, my human (who knows virtually nothing about plants) recognized the hemp! Even though she won't go near it either. I'm more interested in the bug and I'm looking forward to hearing more about it... although you probably did not taste it like I would have!

    BTW, thanks so much for voting for me! I am trying to get as many votes as I can - it's a tough competition!

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    1. It may be a tasty bug, but I'm not sure it would taste the same to me as it would to you. :)

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  10. Bull thistle is pretty ubiquitous in northern climates. The marijuana plants escaped from when farmers used to grow hemp for many products. These varieties were pretty much free of THC the ingredient that marijuana is known for.

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    1. I hope these are the ones with no THC. That would explain why no other people seem to get too excited about them.

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  11. There are so many information about Bull Thistle.

    These leak the secret of your next post.

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    1. I will indeed have to learn more about bull thistle now. One of my future posts might just talk at length about it.

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  12. i always just call them thistle since i find it hard to distinguish the different kind of thistles, and we do have a lot of them here too. hope you get to enjoy knowing more plants before they hibernate or get buried in the snow.

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    1. I hope I can learn more about plants before they go away too. It's getting cold really fast all of a sudden.

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