Outdoor Photographer - April 2022

Right: Peony. At Adelman Peony
Gardens in Oregon, the beautiful
grounds offer a dizzying array of
photographic opportunities. This
close-up of a peony flower was
photographically isolated from
surrounding foliage using the long
telephoto RF100-500mm at 500mm
at its closest focus. In-camera focus
bracketing delivered the detail. Canon
EOS R5. 39 focus-stacked images.
Exposure: 1/90 sec., ƒ/11, ISO 200.

Opposite: Cosmos in Isolation. In a
public garden near Bend, Oregon’s
Old Mill District, using a telephoto
lens with a wide aperture isolates a
single cosmos flower from its colorful
and busy background. Canon EOS-1D
X, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM.
Exposure: 1/750 sec., ƒ/5.6, ISO 400.

Below: Cineraria Panorama. A
panorama technique captured this
display at Butchart Gardens near
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
The method, similar to an aerial
mapping sequence, combined
four separate images, each taken
from a direct perspective. The
camera was moved to position each
capture slightly overlapping the
adjacent images. The panorama was
assembled and finished in Photoshop.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon
EF 17-40mm f/4L USM at 40mm.
Exposure: 1/125 sec., ƒ/16, ISO 200.

stacking (or focus bracketing) is a game-
changer. To accomplish it, you capture a
series of images at different focus points
and combine them into a single image
post-capture. This can be done manually
by moving the focus in small increments.

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Extreme Daisies. In Bend, Oregon,
an extreme wide-angle lens brings
a field of daisies into focus, adds
a dramatic sunburst and suggests
a broader environment while
emphasizing the blossoms front
and center. A handheld flash was
used on the foreground to light a
shaded area. Canon EOS RP, Canon
EF 11-24mm f/4L USM with Mount
Adapter EF-EOS R at 11mm, Canon
Speedlite 600EX-RT with diffuser.
Exposure: 1/500 sec., ƒ/22, ISO 200. Ω

indoor settings where some growers dis-

play samples of the floral varieties they

are marketing.

Wide-Angle Close-ups. For a different

close-up perspective that shows the back-

ground in sharp focus while enlarging the

foreground for creative emphasis, use a

wide-angle lens. Some wide-angle optics

focus fairly closely on their own, or you

might need to place a short extension tube

(8mm to 12mm) behind the lens to make

it focus closer. You’ll have considerable

depth of field, especially if you stop the

lens down to ƒ/16 or ƒ/22. This will work

with lenses from 11mm to 28mm. I’ve

used a handheld flash to balance the light-

ing of the foreground subject with the

background natural light. The result uses

wide-angle distortion, usually a negative,

as a tool to emphasize a foreground ele-

ment within its environment.

More Creative Ideas. There are many

approaches to flower photography that

produce compelling and colorful images.

The secret is to have each frame’s depth any situation where you need additional Try moving the camera during exposure
of field overlap the next frame. Stop the depth of field, such as extreme landscapes
lens down to maximize the depth of field or extreme macro, as described below. for intentional blur, capturing insects as a
in each frame and take as many frames
as needed. You’ll need to work from a High-Magnification Macro. When subject within the flower, catching surface
tripod and remember, if you have too few you want to capture the intricate detail of
images, or they don’t overlap in the sharp a complex blossom such as a dahlia, peony water droplets and reflections on a misty
area, your result will be unsharp.You can or iris, you’ll turn to macro techniques.
seldom have too many images. True macro lenses offer magnification to or rainy morning, shooting upward from
1x (life-size) or greater. Specialty macro
In some newer cameras, focus-stack- lenses work at magnifications up to 5x; beneath the flowers to catch a sunburst in
ing capabilities are built in. You set the they are better used in a studio where con-
beginning and endpoints of the area you ditions can be precisely controlled. But the frame, multiple exposures on a sin-
want to render sharp and the increments in the field, some beautiful details can
and number of frames you want to cover be extracted from floral subjects using a gle frame, panoramas, HDR effects and
it. The camera does the rest. Post-capture, 1x macro on a tripod, incorporating the
the images are assembled (stacked) into focus-bracketing technique described aerials from drones (ask first)—just to
one file in the computer using software above, and employing the additional light-
such as Zerene Stacker, Helicon Focus ing needed when working very close to name a few.
or Photoshop. The technique is useful in a subject. This strategy is useful in the
Yes, I will always treasure those special

moments in wildflower fields and will

never stop looking for more, but a day

in the gardens can yield lots of creative

satisfaction and beautiful images that look

great on the wall. OP

See more of George D. Lepp’s work at
georgeleppimages.com.

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behind the shot

Bounding
Through
Wildflowers

Hornstrandir Nature
Reserve, Iceland

Text & Photography by Chris Linder

Hornstrandir Nature Reserve is kits. Careful not to disturb the feeding, I complicated background of wildflowers.
a roadless, 220-square-mile hunkered down in the flowers and waited, I fired off a couple of test shots to check
expanse of glacially carved hoping the kits would get curious. my exposure and then settled back into
valleys, towering sea cliffs, wildflower the flowers to wait.
meadows, legions of seabirds—and Ice- Anticipating the shot I wanted to
land’s only native terrestrial mammal, make, I set my Nikon D850 autofocus As luck would have it, as soon as the
the arctic fox. With its rounded ears, to back-button continuous mode and parent sprinted back off to forage, one
thick fur and shortened legs and snout, the AF area to the smallest box, so I bold kit decided to follow and bounded
the arctic fox is supremely adapted to could lock focus on the fox’s eye in the through the wildflowers with all of the
an unforgiving climate. Iceland’s fox
population is split between white and
blue color morphs. The white morph is
completely white through the winter and
mixed brown and white in the summer,
while the blue morph remains a bluish
brown throughout the year.

Since the island’s settlement over a
thousand years ago, Icelanders have
hunted this small (less than 10 pounds)
carnivore, at first for its fur and later to
protect lambs and other livestock. Horn-
strandir is one of the few regions in the
country where the fox is fully protected
from hunting, so they have little fear of
humans. Their innate curiosity often
leads to close encounters with hikers
and campers.

On a recent trip to Hornstrandir, I was
photographing a vibrant carpet of pink
wood cranesbill and yellow meadow but-
tercup flowers when I noticed an adult
fox running through the meadow with
some carrion in its mouth. I tracked its
progress as it made its way over to a
rock-pile den at the base of a cliff and
proceeded to feed its family of young

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➤ Nikon D850, AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR.
Exposure: 1/800 sec., ƒ/7.1, ISO 140.

enthusiasm of youth. The kit, so small and sisters, and together they all scurried dictates the terms of the interaction. It
that it could barely see above the flow- into their burrows.
ers, took a wrong turn in the chase and also doesn’t hurt to have a beautiful field
instead found me. I only had a split The encounter, measured only in sec-
second to lock the focus and fire off onds, was one of the highlights of the five of wildflowers to lie in and practice a
a handful of frames before the fox kit days I spent camping and photograph-
disappeared. Moments later, it reap- ing in the idyllic Hornstrandir Reserve. wildlife photographer’s most important
peared at the den, greeted its brothers It reminded me that the best wildlife
encounters are ones where the animal attribute: patience. OP

See more of Chris Linder’s work at
chrislinder.com.

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last frame

Forest Defender

“This is the first macro shot that I was really happy with,” photographer
Mattias Hammar of Gothenburg, Sweden, confides. “A blue damselfly
defending the forest. The photo was taken beside a forest path close to
a lake. When I passed, I saw 20 to 30 damsels buzzing in an area
covered in tall green grass. I spent an hour failing to get a nice shot of
these evasive models before this moment happened. I started to close
in on this fellow who didn’t back down. While I was shooting, a light
gust of wind brought a small straw in front of him. He reacted by using
his legs to transfer it from right to left. I got a series of about 10 images.
I was lucky to get the best focus and coolest pose in the same shot.”
See more of Mattias Hammar’s work at mattiashammar.com.
➤ Sony a7R III, Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS. Exposure: 1/500 sec.,
ƒ/5, ISO 250.

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