1506_2829 Spotted Saxifrage
An ultra close up of a single flower. This plant grows in dense, matted cushions, and may be found from Alaska east to Greenland, south through BC and Washington to northern Oregon, and through the Rockies. Widespread, successful, and a nightmare to photograph. The flowers are sooo tiny! Try to show the entire plant and the flowers look like pinheads, although in reality they are about 1 cm in diameter (that's a guess, based on memory).
I do have shots of the clustered flowers in landscape shots (you know, foreground interest), but this time in Waterton may have been my first attempt to photograph an individual flower. It was really pretty and looked far more delicate and dainty than expected. The plant, of course, is hardy, robust, and superbly adapted to rocky terrain, short summers, and long winters.
I don't normally use f/36, because there is a dropoff in sharpness, but in this case depth of field was so shallow at minimum focus that I took a chance. I kept the flower dead centre to minimize distortion, chromatic aberration, and similar problems, and got a surprisingly good result. With my shutter down to 1/30 and an intermittent, slight breeze, I shot dozens of backup frames to increase my chances of getting one that wasn't blurred from subject movement. Even the slightest tremble will show when you focus this close. The camera was on a tripod; there was no other way to do it. That was fine, because I worked all day from the tripod, except for some hand held wildlife shots. I also locked the mirror up - a problem many shooters no longer have - and waited a couple seconds for any vibrations to die down before exposing each frame. So it actually took some time and effort to get this shot.
Photographed near Red Rock Canyon in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2015 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
1506_2829 Spotted Saxifrage
An ultra close up of a single flower. This plant grows in dense, matted cushions, and may be found from Alaska east to Greenland, south through BC and Washington to northern Oregon, and through the Rockies. Widespread, successful, and a nightmare to photograph. The flowers are sooo tiny! Try to show the entire plant and the flowers look like pinheads, although in reality they are about 1 cm in diameter (that's a guess, based on memory).
I do have shots of the clustered flowers in landscape shots (you know, foreground interest), but this time in Waterton may have been my first attempt to photograph an individual flower. It was really pretty and looked far more delicate and dainty than expected. The plant, of course, is hardy, robust, and superbly adapted to rocky terrain, short summers, and long winters.
I don't normally use f/36, because there is a dropoff in sharpness, but in this case depth of field was so shallow at minimum focus that I took a chance. I kept the flower dead centre to minimize distortion, chromatic aberration, and similar problems, and got a surprisingly good result. With my shutter down to 1/30 and an intermittent, slight breeze, I shot dozens of backup frames to increase my chances of getting one that wasn't blurred from subject movement. Even the slightest tremble will show when you focus this close. The camera was on a tripod; there was no other way to do it. That was fine, because I worked all day from the tripod, except for some hand held wildlife shots. I also locked the mirror up - a problem many shooters no longer have - and waited a couple seconds for any vibrations to die down before exposing each frame. So it actually took some time and effort to get this shot.
Photographed near Red Rock Canyon in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2015 James R. Page - all rights reserved.