Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Stillness

The standing dead.

The Laramie Valley is part of the Rocky Mountains, 7000 feet elevation, far from any ameliorating marine effects. Winters are cold and long. What’s a lover of wild plants to do? Well … turns out plants are common right now, even herbaceous perennials and annuals! They're dead, of course. But if we look close, there's plenty of interest.
Musk or nodding thistle, Carduus nutans.
Plenty of plants to choose from.
I harvested a variety of dead plants, and brought them inside for macro portraits. As always, I saw things I hadn’t seen before. This time I was better able to capture them, as I now have a tripod.
In the early days, no photographer would shoot without a sturdy base, even though it sometimes meant hauling a heavy tripod a long way to a precarious perch. Early cameras took so long to collect enough light for detailed images that a photographer couldn’t possibly hold one by hand.
WH Jackson makes a view from Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park (ca. 1884); source.
In his early work in the American West, William Henry Jackson typically used exposure times of 5 seconds or more for "views"—landscape photos. Though "fast" shutter speeds of 0.5 seconds were possible for action shots, detail and beauty were paramount in making views, and long exposures were necessary.

Now our fast and clever cameras let us shoot hand-held in most situations, even for exposure times measured in seconds. In fact, some photographers are of the opinion that tripods will soon be obsolete.
“Between the much-improved high-ISO performance of modern imaging sensors and the excellent image stabilization technology available for most systems today, it would appear that we’re running out of reasons to use tripods anymore. After all, if we can shoot hand-held at shutter speeds as slow as 1.5 seconds and ISOs as high as 6,400 and still get great images, what do we need a tripod for?” Alvano Serrano
But there are situations where we need the stillness of a tripod—for example, in low light where a flash can’t be used, or for artistic long-exposure shots.
With exposure times of 5 seconds, William Henry Jackson’s waterfalls and streams were artistically blurred. Little Firehole Falls, Yellowstone National Park, 1874(?); source.

Two sessions of experimentation convinced me that shooting with a tripod is a hassle! (compounded by the challenges of macrophotography). I also decided it was worth it. With the camera on a firm foundation, I could carefully adjust settings and view results. A side benefit—I learned several camera features too.

Being so close to the subject, a macro lens produces a narrow depth of field, i.e. only a small part of the scene is in focus. This is not necessarily bad. Macros can create interesting compositions, for example a sharply-focused subject against a blurred background. But the depth of field can be too narrow to capture everything desired. In fact, insufficient depth of field is one of the two problems I’ve had with macrophotography (the other is poor focus—a tripod helps here too).

Many cameras have a mode dedicated to depth of field. In aperture priority mode (Av on my Canon Rebel), the aperture or opening for light can be adjusted to create less or more depth of field. This will be a smaller or larger f-stop number, which I know better than to try to explain. See A Tedious Explanation of the f/stop (only a little tedious).

Then I found I needed more light. But in aperture priority mode, how can I adjust anything else? The camera manual explained that I could still use exposure compensation, even in Av mode. Sure enough, it worked.

With the stillness of the tripod, I could look at settings in the LCD monitor, adjust them, use longer exposure times without worrying about camera shake, adjust depth of field to my taste, bring into sharp focus things I wanted to feature, and then press the button.
Abstract #1—showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa)
All this may seem complicated, with lots of details to remember—not something I enjoy. And this is just the simple stuff; there are many more options! But I like the results. After some early frustration, it became interesting and even fun. And that’s what we look for mid-winter in Laramie.

Milkweed pods—dry, open, empty. Most of their seeds have been cast to the wind.
Pod is about 9 cm long.



Abstract #2—Scotch thistle (Onopordum acanthium)
The pits once held seeds (technically achenes or cypselas).

A forest of phyllaries (bracts).


Nodding head of nodding thistle (also first two photos in post).


Dock, Rumex sp.
Dock’s winged fruit are about 4 mm across. The brown bulges are called callosities or tubercles, and are useful for identification.


What’s this lovely arrangement?
It's yellow sweetclover, Melilotus officinalis. Dried pods (legumes) are about 3 mm long; each contains a seed.

I wonder—how easy will all this be outside? My tripod can hold the camera as low as 4.5 inches above the ground. Will I be able to capture blooming flowers? (Yes … I’m dreaming of warmth, verdant growth, and bright colors!)
Pasque flower.

22 comments:

  1. Good for you - using a tripod! And great results with your studies of winter wildflowers. I especially like your milkweed shots, but then I have a soft spot for milkweed as we used to love watching Monarch caterpillars on it. We have a Sonoran version here - I ID'd it once but can't recall the name at the moment - a large, nearly leafless plant but with the typical seed silks.
    I still avoid a tripod myself, but I blame it partly on the shortcomings of our available equipment (I've never found it easy to adjust the angles and have been known to "steady" it by hand!). Despite which, some of my favorite current photographers use long exposure magnificently - Breton photographer Thierry Kergroac'h, for one - may I leave a link? You might enjoy... https://plus.google.com/u/0/104279531248638333490/posts/iKWeshmHBWy?pid=6225624728012754994&oid=104279531248638333490

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    1. Beautiful photo on that web page, Amy, with the glen and waterfall -- I want to be there! Thanks

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  2. The nodding head of nodding thistle is my favorite! I hate using tripods and rarely do, but sometimes I have to. They tend to take away spontaneity in composition for me. Some people like using tripods because it helps them be more thoughtful about composition. Different personalities I guess. I shoot almost exclusively in aperture priority and tweak the exposure with exposure compensation. Works well.

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    1. I agree, Ken--in general I wouldn't want to be bothered with a tripod in the field. But it solved my problems with indoor macro-photography. We'll see how it goes outside (on that rare wind-free day!)

      sounds like I should ask you for advice in the future! But maybe having figured things out myself they're more likely to stick.

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  3. Very cool pictures! It seems we are both after thistles :), well in a different way. But it's true they make good compositions for the winter photography.
    I don't have patience to use a tripod, although you are right, and indeed one can take better pictures.

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    1. Thanks, bi :-) Yes, I thought about you and your thistle posts as I was collecting plants. We have plenty of thistles nearby, not many species though and all non-native. But still interesting in my opinion.

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  4. the stillness of these captures with attention to detail are pure meditation for the eyes - loved drooling over them and following the photo links - thank you

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    1. Thanks eljaygee. I'm especially flattered after finding your photo blog--very nice.

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  5. Fabulous! This is my favorite post of the day. I had my tripod out today, too, but the results were unimpressive as I was photographing out the window through panes of glass. These photos are definitely frame-worthy!

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    1. Once again, Beth, thanks for the encouragement. So you use a tripod--maybe that helps explain the quality of your photos! I was happy enough with the results that I don't mind the extra effort.

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  6. Stunning photographs, Hollis. i wonder if birds use the nodding thistle for nest bedding? It looks very comfy.
    I've been experimenting with panoramic photos recently and have found tripods quite useful for that.

    I think that you'd enjoy and appreciate Robert Llewellyn's 'Seeing' series of books (Seeds, Trees, Flowers). He uses macro photography too, but takes the same photo many times taking the focus from the top of the object down to the bottom. He then stacks the images with software to create a macro image that is totally in focus. I recently read Seeing Seeds and was amazed how well the technique works.

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    1. Thanks, Tim. Panoramic shots are something I intent to try when the weather gets warmer, so glad to hear there's another use for my new tripod. I see the Trees and Flowers books are in our library, so I will have a look at them!

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  7. The only problem with our current tripod is the lack of level bubbles! Means a bit of extra time when doing panoramics on uneven ground :/
    Ah great. Our library doesn't have them, so I've been waiting until they're as cheap as possible and buying them one at a time! The next one I'll be reading is Seeing Trees. If you give them a go, I'd really like to know what you think of them.

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    1. So a level is needed, that makes sense. Mine also lacks one and that was one of the few criticisms in reviews. they suggested it was possible to patch something together ... I'll ask a friend who is clever that way.

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    2. I think a spirit level would definitely be a time saver. I don't have one yet, but have seen many that can attach to the tripod and some that connect to the camera's hot shoe.

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    3. I looked into this via Google, and found an interesting and informative discussion here: http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00EFii?start=10
      Check out the panoramic photo attached to one of the last comments (p 2)--beautiful and rather mystical!
      http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00E/00ET6Y-26908284.jpg

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    4. Thanks for the links. It was really helpful and it seems that the tripods with 2 spirit levels are the ones for me to look at. That photo is brilliant. I also liked the one in the post above it called False Kiva.

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    5. False Kiva was the one I meant to send! So ... oops and glad you found it

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    6. No problem! Hope I can make photos that good at some point!

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    7. I just came across this video on YouTube about the book Seeing Trees and shows some of the photos and talks about the photo stacking he does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGv21FZFLPY

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  8. Beautiful pictures!! Love the macros in particular!

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