Ever Forward

I did two different photo shoots this weekend.  First, Maty and I went to Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden on an invitation Saturday evening.  Then I did a separate shoot of an orchid.

I took the camera along to Stowe Botanical Garden and managed to take a decent shot or two, which you can find in my North Carolina albums (or here).  It was night time, and there were plenty of photogs out and about.  We were all trying to capture the magic of the Christmas lights in the gardens.  I failed to throw in my tripod, or I might have gotten some even better shots.  Or at leasta few more decent shots.  Anyway, it was as much for fun as for learning – and a learning experience it was.  The elephant ear plant you can see in this album was taken when my lens was partially steamed after entering the greenhouse from the 30-something outdoor air.  The flash seemed, in some cases, to cast an angled shadow on my subjects, so those pics did not quite make it in.  Maybe I should have tried Flash bracketing?  Anyway, the ones in this series are some of the shots I consider to be the better ones.

Wagon at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

You’ll find the orchid shots among my Nature albums (or here).  I only shot the one orchid, but I shot it several different ways, just playing around, experimenting a bit.  I used flash on some shots and manual aperture/shutter speed adjustments on others.  I would like to play around a bit more with that, but did not have as much time as I would have liked.  Anyway, maybe I’ll get another chance soon…