Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Photographing Daylilies

Today's post is about photographing daylilies in new ways.

This morning I put my fast fixed lens on my camera instead of the usual lens. (Photographically, what this means is that the depth of field becomes very narrow, and you get a very blurry background.) For comparison, I took some photos with another camera, an older Sony. The Sony camera has a different colour balance, so I find that the colours from my Pentax are more true. However, the fixed lens does not allow for getting close to the subject. If I want a more "macro" look, I have to crop it. I haven't cropped any of these photos though.

First 'Russian Rhapsody' Bloom

These pictures were taken with the Pentax camera.

Russian Rhapsody (Pentax Fast Lens)

Russian Rhapsody: Side View (Pentax Fast Lens)

This picture was taken with the Sony camera.

Russian Rhapsody (Sony)

'Woodside Rhapsody' Second Bloom

This picture was taken with the Pentax camera.

Woodside Rhapsody (Pentax Fast Lens)

This picture was taken with the Sony camera.

Woodside Rhapsody (Sony)

Moonglow

Since the Moonglow are not dark-coloured daylilies, there isn't as much of a problem with the colour balance. This picture was taken with the Pentax camera.

Ragged Moonglow (Pentax Fast Lens)

This picture was taken with the Sony.

Moonglow Doesn't Like Rain (Sony)

One drawback of 'Moonglow' daylilies is that in rainy weather they get very ragged. However, this is because their petals are quite delicate, which is what I like about them in dry weather.

Two 'Edge of Darkness' Blooms Today

There were two blooms on 'Edge of Darkness' today. One looked great, and the other was a more "blemished" example. As I was taking photos after the rain this morning, I decided to shake the water off the plant. I shook a little too vigorously I guess, since one flower fell off. Of course it was the pretty one.

Here is the blemished daylily taken with the Pentax camera.

Ratty 'Edge of Darkness' Daylily (Pentax Fast Lens)

Here is that daylily taken with the Sony camera.

Ratty Edge of Darkness (Sony)

This is the one that fell when I shook the rain off (taken with the Sony).

The One that Fell

Now it's in a bowl.

Daylily in Bowl
All photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.


[Carol, I considered frying it up for my breakfast, but it was just too pretty to eat.]

Usually I like to play bumblebee with my daylilies, but even if it were not raining I couldn't do it today because these daylilies are not producing pollen. Later in the season I will have plenty of opportunity to create interesting mixes and harvest the resulting seeds.

5 comments:

Alison said...

Amazing colour differences....

Hannele på Hisingen said...

Wonderful daylilies, lovely photos!

Philosophical Karen said...

Yes, the fixed lens will only get so close. I could crop the photos for the illusion of getting closer, but then I would remove the blurry background. I find the Sony washes out the dark colours too much -- but it sure did a nice job on the 'Moonglow'.

Robin said...

I love the depth of field on the Pentax pics. The color difference is pretty stark too. I am loving the wine-colored and purplish daylilies. I need to be getting more of these pretty little no-fuss flowers.

Sigruns German Garden said...

Wonderful Hems, Karen!

Yesterday I said to Mr. Wonderful, from now on we eat daylilies in the salat!
You must see his face!

Sigrun