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| Backyard Thistle |
Going to Seed
We are fortunate to have a bit of property around our home. Most of it is wooded and intensely overgrown second and third growth woods, largely comprised of Red Alder, Douglas Fir, and Hemlocks. There is a cleared section out back that I suspect was established by a previous owner to attract deer, for hunting purposes I suspect. On the periphery of the cleared area is a boundary zone consisting of brambles, nettles, and thistles. We typically take the dogs for a walk to this out back area twice a day.
In the spring we investigate and attempt to identify species of plants growing and blooming. During the summer months we pick blackberries. And with autumn beginning to emerge we are now noting what is going to seed. I have been observing various thistle blooms transforming themselves into explosions of downy seed bundles. Last evening I wandered back up with my camera and electronic flash to see what I could capture.
I mounted the flash on a stand so I could position it at various angles and heights relative to the camera's position. The flash was synced to the camera via a pair of remotes and through trial, and a lot of error, I decided postponing the flash at about the same height and at a right angle to the camera's view presented an appealing perspective. I then made several exposures while adjusting the intensity of the flash's output. To capture this image I used a 16mm prime lens on my Fuji X-T2 set to ISO 200 with a shutter speed of 1/200 sec and aperture of f/14. Larger apertures did not allow for the depth of field I was looking for. To process the image I first made basic adjustments in Lightroom then further refined the image in Photoshop using Nik plugins to reduce noise and improve color tones. But the real magic with this image occurred when I processed it using a set of Topaz filters; thankfully many of the settings employed were provided as suggested presets.
Thoreau is quoted as saying, "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." The more time I spend capturing images, and especially trying to create a photograph that is representative of what I feel, the more I find I am able to see.
