Spring is here

[Discus-n00b]

Lately I've felt uncreative. Maybe it was the doldrums of winter, or just not getting the time I want with a camera in my hands but I realized I lost my "eye" in the photography sense. I haven't fully tried to look for different angles and viewpoints. Photos became just getting the subject in the center of the frame and being pretty much done, and I don't like that. There is nothing wrong with an object centered in the frame, some are good that way. But it's a photo anyone could walk up and snap, i'd equate the feeling to taking a photo of the statue of liberty, leaning tower, or other big landmark from the same crowd of tourists that are there. It's a great photo, but it doesn't push creative bounds which is the part that I'm not happy with. I realized this as I looked up into the blooms of a Dogwood tree yesterday and thought, why have I not taken a photo like this before? It's because I stopped looking for it. I guess it's almost like writer's block in a sense. So it's my goal to really look for the creative angles again going forward.

Here is the picture that really helped inspire me again. Looks almost like a studio shot, but that is all natural light. Lemme know what you think!
Pinkdogwoods2 by Matt, on Flickr






Here are a few others I took the same day. All taken with natural sunlight, or partly cloudy skies...
Dogwoods by Matt, on Flickr
blueflower by Matt, on Flickr

The rest of these were all taken before that first Dogwood shot, so many not as artistic in nature but spring blooms nonetheless. This first Dogwood shot came right before the first photo, and I was about to walk off when I looked up. For those of you that like golf, it's starting to look like Augusta National again around here. Dogwoods and Azaleas galore. Was already before our late snow fall, everything is just now starting to come back again.
Pinkdogwoods3 by Matt, on Flickr
Pinkflower by Matt, on Flickr
Calico by Matt, on Flickr

[Second Hand Pat]

These pink dogwood blooms are gorgeous. How did you get such nice (black and white) backgrounds? Reflector? I like them all but the first one is really nice.
Pat

[Discus-n00b]

Thanks! We have I believe 2 of the pinks and 2 of the whites in the yard. Love the pinks myself.

The first is against a mostly white sky, almost looking directly towards the sun later in the afternoon. However there were a few spots of greyish blue color that I turned white to give it an even feel all the way across. But the clouds in the sky pretty much made it all white for me. I basically overexposed the crap out of the image to expose the pink blooms against a bright sky. Otherwise it would just be shadows against the sky. On the second shot down I just went with a really fast shutter to darken the photo overall, then darkened the shadows a bit more in post to hide everything I didn't want in the image like a chain link fence, compost bin, pinestraw, etc. White Dogwoods can be tough, to much light and it will blow your blooms out to much. I prefer going darker and working the blooms in post, that way I can get my shadows underneath easier. That was taken when the sun was behind clouds so it was already a bit of a cloudy look. The third shot down is a DIY job. I started taking photos of the blue flowers and realized I hated seeing the short green fence to keep the dogs out behind it in the background. Mind you I was aware of stuff like this now after shooting that first image so instead of just letting it pass I had to eliminate it. I took some black painted cardboard and used it for a backdrop however I couldn't get it to stand high enough for the image so I found a larger sheet of cardboard and wrapped a black Tshirt around it and used that as the backdrop. I darkened it in post to a more neutral black so you can't see fuzz or anything of the shirt material.

[SMB2]

Great shots, but I love the high key shot of the pink dogwood.
Shooting white flowers are like shooting snow, hard to keep from being gray or blown out. (Looks like you might take the white slider to the right a touch.)
Like the Camellia (?) at the bottom but I would either crop out the one in the back or include it more as an OOF flower in the BG.

[Discus-n00b]

Thanks Stan, I was thinking the same thing with the white Dogwoods, seemed to dark to me.

The camellia was more for just it being an interesting color morph, like the Peppermint variety than anything. I'll have to explore getting some better shots on that bush. It's a small sparse bush so there isn't tons around it to really bokeh nice in the background. But I agree, that top right needs to go. I want to reshoot this at a different angle.

[brewmaster15]

Glad you found your "eye" again Matt. It happens to us all from time to time. The pink dogwoods on white look great, just like a studio shot. Reminds me of cherry blossoms. Very cool shot and a keeper. No flowers here yet, still have patches of snow on the ground though the tulips are pushing up here and there. Should be soon I hope,

I also like the simple look of the white dogwood flowers on the black backround.

Nice set all around!

al

[Discus-n00b]

Thanks Al. Reminded me of cherry blossoms as well when I first started taking photos of it and chimping them on the camera.