Wildflowers 1, DavidTO 0

DavidTO

I haven't picked up my camera in, hmmmm, let's see. About 9 months. Thankfully I have a friend like Marc, who dragged my butt out of bed at 4am to get up to the wildflowers by sunrise. And those flowers kicked my butt. I definitely need to get out more, I'm far from happy with the results. Anyway, here goes.

We started in Cottonwood Canyon, near New Cuyama.

Just a quick shot looking back at my new Subaru.





No clouds to add interest, but the light was nice coming up on the hills.




The plan was to come back to this hillside after the poppies opened up, but we never made it back. We had a talking to by the rancher who, by the way, doesn't buy any of this endangered nonsense in reference to the kangaroo rat. Anyway, he said we could only shoot from the road, and what fun is that? So we had to leave before I really got a chance to explore this hill.




So, it was off to Carrizo Plains National Monument which is situated right on the San Andreas Fault. Here Marc is setting up for a video shot with his 7D.




Busy with the video, Marc handed me his 16mm Nikkor to shoot with. "Get lost, kid, you're bothering me." Or something like that. :wink

So I fumbled around with that for a while.




You can see Marc and the car to the right.







The 50mm 1.4 came out next.




And quickly had the 12mm extender put on. I gotta say, the bokeh looks a bit funky with the extender. Or maybe it's just the lens. Also, processing these flowers has completely kicked my ass. They're either dayglo or boring, there's no middle ground. Plus the fact that I really need to get a better handle on the DOF with the extender on that 50. I missed focus a lot, or it was just too thin to produce an image I'd be proud of. Here's some of them:








It was a good day, even if I'm not loving the results.



Full gallery is here.

schmoo

You're really hard on yourself (naturally!), cuz I think these look great. Excellent color and nice depth of field, and you really get a sense of how steep and colorful those hills are. There are worse places to be than stuck in a field of gorgeous flowers with a camera on a beautiful morning.

I've never used extenders, but I've always had to hit pics taken with the 50 with some USM before uploading.

Hey, nice ride!

Marc Muench

I want my lens back:D

DavidTO

Marc Muench wrote:

I want my lens back:D

Nah, you don't. I've shamed it. It's no longer worthy of you.

Nikolai

Nice series!

ian408

I'm liking #8 in this set.

mr peas

Lucky. I wish we had that kind field close-by. :cry

I love the colors.

DavidTO

mr peas wrote:

Lucky. I wish we had that kind field close-by. :cry

I love the colors.

It didn't seem close when I was driving it! You don't have any flowers within 2 hours? Well, you'll have plenty of desert flowers in the coming weeks, right?

DavidTO

Nikolai wrote:

Nice series!

Thanks, Nik!

DavidTO

ian408 wrote:

I'm liking #8 in this set.

Thanks, Ian. I should have just climbed over the dang fence to get that shot, but I'm too much of a good boy to cross fence lines, I guess. Anyway, that was a hang the camera over the far side of the fence and see what I get shot.

Eia

Wow, what a joy to view! I like your perspective on the hills and flowers! From the rolling hills to the in your face colorful flowers! I especially like 7 and 8.

DavidTO

Eia wrote:

Wow, what a joy to view! I like your perspective on the hills and flowers! From the rolling hills to the in your face colorful flowers! I especially like 7 and 8.

Wow, thanks, Eia!

mr peas

DavidTO wrote:

It didn't seem close when I was driving it! You don't have any flowers within 2 hours? Well, you'll have plenty of desert flowers in the coming weeks, right?

Haven't tried driving out that far to catch some. If and when I do I'm definitely posting some of the lovelies on here. Thanks for the inspiration, haha.. oh and glad to see you back, I just started shooting again for fun for a change as well.

Tango

DavidTO wrote:

Should be hanging in a Subaru dealership...

ivar

Dude! You took photos again!!! Yay! Nice! I love the angles and the flowing of the land

I've never put extension on the 50 1.4, but I've never had that kind of bokeh without it

Tango

DavidTO wrote:

Super Cool, (dont give back that lens):D

Tango

Hey David, did ya need to Ice your trigger finger afterward?

tisun

Cool subaru! It looks even better among the wild flowers.

DavidTO

tisun wrote:

Cool subaru! It looks even better among the wild flowers.

I like it. No plates on it yet, and it's had it's first off road experience!

DavidTO

AaronNelson wrote:

Super Cool, (dont give back that lens):D

Interesting side note on that lens of Marc's. It's a Nikkor 16mm fisheye that he uses with his Canon gear with an adapter. I just noticed that the EXIF on that shot is wrong, the camera didn't recognize the lens, so it's still reporting the last lens I had mounted on the camera, the 50mm 1.4. It's a great lens, and it's awesome that you can use it on a Canon, but having incorrect EXIF info would bug me.

Awais Yaqub

Very cool, loved these photos. Lots of flowers

Andy

No more Prius?

DavidTO

Andy wrote:

No more Prius?

My wife is driving that car. Replaced our 10 y.o. Camry with 314k miles.

ChatKat

Love it1
David:

For 9 months it's good to know you haven't lost it! Was the last time you went out with the LA River tour?

I really like these. I think I'll have to take a few lenses out to see some wildflowers.

Thanks for sharing these!

Joashots

Beautiful! Love the close ups.

DavidTO

ChatKat wrote:

David:

For 9 months it's good to know you haven't lost it! Was the last time you went out with the LA River tour?

I really like these. I think I'll have to take a few lenses out to see some wildflowers.

Thanks for sharing these!

Ding, Ding Ding! Yah, that's the last time.

I'm glad you like them, Kathy, thanks! Ben and I are going out this weekend to scare up some more flowers. :ivar

DavidTO

Joashots wrote:

Beautiful! Love the close ups.

Thanks, Joash. I gotta figure out what's going on with that bokeh.