May 28, 2010, 16:03
Hello playmates.
Here's a wideangle, crawling on the floor shot of cowslips from the other day, handheld.
First the pic then a bit about it...
Cowslips are extremely common around here, what with the limestone grassland and, er, cows. They are considered "rare" though, even endangered, and many parts of England do not have these delicate Spring flowers at all.
They are also known as "primula", and have been engineered and pushed out as perennial garden plants by graden centres; I'd guess they're indigenous to Northern Europe, though I'd love to hear if any of you have them in your countries.
"Cowslip" is from our Germanic Anglo-Saxon origins, "cu" and "slippe" being words for "cow" and, er, "excrement" respectively, as it was thought these flowers grow where the creatures defecate. Rather, I'm of the opinion that this is purely coincidence: cows round here are let out to pasture in the Spring and taken in in the Autumn, thus the grassland is not cut after October...so that the cowslip's growth cycle is augmented. Any odd bit of cow poo only serves as nutrient, though these flowers will grow in very poor soil and it's really because they love alkali conditions. Cowslips, it has to be said, smell beautiful: like melon, jasmine and stargazer lily all in one, yet fresh and delicate; one could make wine from the flowerheads before some twonk in Brussels decided to get all PC on our ass and told us we were either killing the ozone layer, or polar ice-caps, or CO2, or something they've not thought of yet.These grasslands are home to a vast variety of rare and exquisite wild flowers: bluebells are about, sorrel, vetch, bugle, viper's bugloss, pasque flower, harebells(a bit later)..and also most of the British Isles' complete panoply of orchids are amazingly to be found here. The rare early-purple orchid and pyramid orchid are out there now even as I speak.
History lesson over; now about the shot.
I do like crawling about at macro distance from the subject, then inviting the viewer in for a long stroll to the horizon: the pleasure of the wide angle.
I chose f8 for this 16mm shot, fine for sharpness and as OK for depth of field as I wanted with this width of lens. Sadly the light was contrejour and not direct sunlight, so I lowered the contrast on conversion and underexposed by a couple of stops; I had enough detail left so as to dodge the flowerheads in, relying on the horizon shapes to suggest their own detail: I preferred the delicate disembodied feel of the flowers against the resultant darkness, also retaining the sky texture: had I exposed "perfectly for the flowers and grass, the sky would have blown out into white boredom.
I think it now has a delicate, almost "fairy-like" quality that is closer to the "spirit" of these grasslands.
Here's a wideangle, crawling on the floor shot of cowslips from the other day, handheld.
First the pic then a bit about it...
Cowslips are extremely common around here, what with the limestone grassland and, er, cows. They are considered "rare" though, even endangered, and many parts of England do not have these delicate Spring flowers at all.
They are also known as "primula", and have been engineered and pushed out as perennial garden plants by graden centres; I'd guess they're indigenous to Northern Europe, though I'd love to hear if any of you have them in your countries.
"Cowslip" is from our Germanic Anglo-Saxon origins, "cu" and "slippe" being words for "cow" and, er, "excrement" respectively, as it was thought these flowers grow where the creatures defecate. Rather, I'm of the opinion that this is purely coincidence: cows round here are let out to pasture in the Spring and taken in in the Autumn, thus the grassland is not cut after October...so that the cowslip's growth cycle is augmented. Any odd bit of cow poo only serves as nutrient, though these flowers will grow in very poor soil and it's really because they love alkali conditions. Cowslips, it has to be said, smell beautiful: like melon, jasmine and stargazer lily all in one, yet fresh and delicate; one could make wine from the flowerheads before some twonk in Brussels decided to get all PC on our ass and told us we were either killing the ozone layer, or polar ice-caps, or CO2, or something they've not thought of yet.These grasslands are home to a vast variety of rare and exquisite wild flowers: bluebells are about, sorrel, vetch, bugle, viper's bugloss, pasque flower, harebells(a bit later)..and also most of the British Isles' complete panoply of orchids are amazingly to be found here. The rare early-purple orchid and pyramid orchid are out there now even as I speak.
History lesson over; now about the shot.
I do like crawling about at macro distance from the subject, then inviting the viewer in for a long stroll to the horizon: the pleasure of the wide angle.
I chose f8 for this 16mm shot, fine for sharpness and as OK for depth of field as I wanted with this width of lens. Sadly the light was contrejour and not direct sunlight, so I lowered the contrast on conversion and underexposed by a couple of stops; I had enough detail left so as to dodge the flowerheads in, relying on the horizon shapes to suggest their own detail: I preferred the delicate disembodied feel of the flowers against the resultant darkness, also retaining the sky texture: had I exposed "perfectly for the flowers and grass, the sky would have blown out into white boredom.
I think it now has a delicate, almost "fairy-like" quality that is closer to the "spirit" of these grasslands.
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