This is a continuation of photography in my local area during the Texas spring wildflower season. I photographed handholding my camera with the usual Texas wind moving the flowers around. I tried to use a sufficiently high shutter speed to freeze the wind induced motion and my hand shake, shooting in burst mode, hoping to get useable images. This resulted in many images to sort through and many that I had to pass over. Even so, some of the images that I elected to process and present publicly, are not entirely satisfactory.
When I was a very young, my playmates and I smashed these “Buttercups” into each others noses, covering them with yellow pollen. It is fortunate, none of us had severe allergies.
After my sunrise shoot and breakfast, I went back out with my 80-400mm lens mounted on my D850 to shoot wildflowers. I shot handheld, so I used a fast shutter speed and continuous (burst) mode in an effort to get shots with the best focus, as the flowers moved in the breeze and my unsteady hands added to the movement.
Wildflower with Ant. Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/640s, f/5.6, ISO 640, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
One of the interesting things about shooting this way, is that one never knows exactly what one will get as a result. Later when reviewing and editing the photos one might discover some small details that were not obvious, when shooting from a distance with a big, non-macro, lens. Wildflowers almost always have numerous insect in or on them.
I discovered a translucent spider in one of my shots, but it was not good enough to present. Big disappointment, that spider looked really cool.
Fairy Trumpet Wildflower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 400, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
These red trumpet like flowers come out of a bud that is a contrasting purple with a deeper purple at its base.
Wildflower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/640s, f/5.6, ISO 500, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.Wildflower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 400, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
There was a heavy dew this morning, but I found capturing the sunlight sparkling in the dew drops was quite difficult with my big lens. But the flower above with the dew drops looks a bit like some creature with one drop looking like an eye.
Wildflower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/250s, f/5.6, ISO 200, 80-400mm at 300mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Some flowers were obviously past their prime.
Leaves, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 800, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
These curly, fuzzy, reddish leaves were on low growing plants and difficult to get a good close up of. I had to crop in very closely to get this image.
Wildflower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/6400s, f/5.6, ISO 640, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.Fairy Trumpet Wildflowers, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/640s, f/5.6, ISO 500, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.Wildflower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/800s, f/6.3, ISO 1000, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
I shot many images of the plant above, initially of those just coming out of the ground without the cone flower pod at the top of an eventually tall plant. The leaves of these are very fuzzy, and with the many early morning dew drops, all of the images look out of focus; although, I’m sure not all of them could have been out of focus. Nonetheless, I am refraining from posting most of those fuzzy looking images. Those yellow bulb like features eventually develop into yellow flowers, but I did not get good images of those.
Wildflowers, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/500s, f/6.3, ISO 1000, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
I really like these tall stalks with the many blue to purple flowers with the green to red stems. It appears that ants like these, too.
Wildflowers, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/640s, f/6.3, ISO 1000, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.Spent Wildflower Trio, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/400s, f/5.6, ISO 400, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.Wildflowers, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 640, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.Thistle, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/800s, f/6.3, ISO 1250, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Thistles always make good subjects for wildflower photos with their long stems and variations in physical features as they develop beautiful purple flowers then fade away.
Thistles, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 1000, 80-400mm at 80mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.Thistle Progression, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/320s, f/5.6, ISO 400, 80-400mm at 220mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.Thistle Flower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/320s, f/5.6, ISO 400, 80-400mm at 220mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
The upside and downside to photographing wildflowers is that there are infinitely many ways to capture them and maybe posts on such subjects get a bit long and monotonous.
Note that I have not identified most of these flowers. Not that I did not try for awhile. It is just too frustrating to do so. I’ve yet to find a good online wildflower reference that is easy to use. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the images and you can ignore my blathering about them.
