Getting back to making some new botanical photos. Here's a maple seed that I picked up off the sidewalk a few months ago - still has a trace of green in it.
Spent the past few days down in Indiana - beautiful country, especially in the summer. I was looking in east here in a cemetery in Jay County. A thunderstorm was coming up from the west.
Update (7/5) - still thinking about this one - an alternate crop:
Botanical Studies - a new show at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, Michigan. This exhibit features 18 close-up, pixel-shifted, focused-stacked photos of plain ole ordinary plants. The kind you have sitting on your desk or growing in your yard. I think the playbill for the exhibit summarizes it all:
The photographs in this exhibit are studies of plants. The subjects include dried seed pods and tendrils, florist flowers, and house plants. Some were living, some were dead, some were dormant - but all manifest a richness of form, structure, and texture.
The inspiration for this project is the work of early 20th century photographer Karl Blossfeldt. His close up photographs of plants presented their subjects with startling realism that dramatically expressed their natural structures.
While inspired by Blossfeldt's works, the goal of these photographs is to explore plants using contemporary photographic techniques. Among the techniques employed, these studio photographs utilize "focus stacking," a process by which multiple images are combined to overcome the limitations of depth-of-field and refraction that challenge high magnification photography. On average each image presented here is a composite of 62 separate exposures.
The show runs from June 18 - August 5 with an artist reception on June 18 from 2-4 and the Carnegie Center for the Arts, 107 North Main Street , Three Rivers, Michigan. Lots of great work at the Three River's Carnegie during this time including "Time Passing" - mixed media by Kalamazoo area artists, "Postcards from Greece" by Melody Allen and more.
Another image from the show - Dandelion:
Visited the Gilmore Car Museum today and had a great time wandering through the old cars, taking snapshots of hood ornaments and other details. A very fun place to visit - a world class collection of vintage autos.
Here are some photos of hood ornaments - I should have noted the names of the cars but didn't think about that:
Just dropped off three pieces at the Battle Creek Art Center for the Signature Artists group show "Beyond Boundaries."
The show will run from June 4-24 at the Art Center of Battle Creek, 265 E Emmett St, Battle Creek, MI 49017. Artists' Reception will this Sunday, June 4, from 2-4PM.
I interpreted "boundaries" as the technical things that you do to make photographs - aperture, shutter speed, etc. - so to get beyond them I broke out the Holgas which don't let you do much with settings. And then I tried to take photos that included boundaries - like the a ditch or the fog lines on a highway. Shot in March / early April.
Here are the three pieces I entered for the show, plus the post card / annoucement:
A dandelion from my yard:
58 stacked images. Pentax K1 in pixel shift resolution.
In the woods today - more of a wild specimen than a garden plant.
Studio shot, 35 stacked image, Pentax K1, DFA 100mm macro, pixel shift resolution.
Closeup of a Kawanzan cherry bloom:
1.75x lifesized. Pentax K1, DFA 100mm macro on extension tubes, 68 stacked images combined in Zerene stacker.