Maybe it’s just me, but photographing flowers makes me crazy. I can’t tell you how often I’ve been hiking along in the mountains and come upon a patch of wildflowers. At first glance the scene is so lovely, it seems like all I need to do is pull out my camera, fire off a few frames, and Great Art will be made.Then the sadistic gods of photography whisper in my ear: “Not so fast, buster. We have ways of making things difficult for you. There is an image here, but you are going to have to work for it. We want to test your resolve. We want to make sure you are worthy. Are you up to this challenge?”
Sheesh, all I wanted to do was take a flower picture!
The possible complications are legion: It could be that, when I get down on the ground and look more closely at the flowers, I see that I’m a few days too early for the blossoms to be just right, or maybe a day or two late. I look through a macro lens and realize that there are bugs on the plants. Or I want to use camera settings that will render the blossom in sharp focus, but then I see that the background is also now in focus, making the image too busy-looking. Most often, though, it is wind that is my undoing--there is a gentle-but-steady breeze coming off the surrounding peaks, and the delicate wildflowers are blowing all over the place.
Yesterday we hiked in the Teanaway River area of central Washington. It was raining when we arrived at the trail head so I opted to carry only a light daypack, rather than schlep a bunch of gear that would only get wet. I left my “serious” camera body, lenses and tripod in the car, taking only my digital point-and-shoot camera with me on the hike. It’s amazing, the images that can be made with that little “toy.” And yesterday, the simple camera seemed to be a way of avoiding complicated problems.
