• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

White California Poppy

M

Mike Spinak

pro member
A week and a half, ago, I took a trip to the Hite Cove trail, just outside Yosemite National Park, for some wildflower photography.

While I was there, I made a picture for a friend, a woman I'm starting to get to know. With her in mind as my inspiration, I tried to make a picture of delicate beauty, presented as a glowing light in the darkness. Here's the picture I made:

3406135624_3eaa3d62e9.jpg


This is a (slightly rare) "albino" California Poppy. I photographed it handheld, with a 180 f/3.5 macro lens, and a 1.4 teleconverter, on a Canon 1Ds Mark II camera. Taken at f/20, 1/500th of a second, ISO 1600. The flower was dangling over the edge of a cliff, and the background is the shadowed canyon of the Merced River. It was bouncing around in the wind, and I was contorted on the edge of the cliff, and this is what I got.

I hope you enjoy. (She did!)
 
Last edited:
K

Kathy Rappaport

pro member
Lovely

Hi Mike,

This is lovely - perfect in my opinion. The luminosity of the flower is beautful. I love the detail. I have never seen a white poppy before. We have a few local spots nearby that shoud be starting some blooms. Will have to go by there in the next day or so.
 
M

Mike Spinak

pro member
Kathy,

Thank you very much.

They're not very common, but there are usually a few to be found, out vast acres of million of poppies, if you look carefully.

A good place for poppies, not too far from you, is Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve SNR.
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Mike Spinak said:
A week and a half, ago, I took a trip to the Hite Cove trail, just outside Yosemite National Park, for some wildflower photography.

While I was there, I made a picture for a friend, a woman I'm starting to get to know. With her in mind as my inspiration, I tried to make a picture of delicate beauty, presented as a glowing light in the darkness. Here's the picture I made:
Click to expand...

3406135624_3eaa3d62e9.jpg


You have managed to convey the delicate beauty of the flower by shooting it so you can pick up light trans-illuminating the petals. As usual, you accomplish this with as simple a form as possible. To your credit! I hope she deserves such thoughtfulness.

Asher
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Mike,

Just as an aside, the compression plus sharpening might be giving a halo effect. Could you check your compression for the jpg.

Asher
 
M

Mike Spinak

pro member
Hi, Asher,

Thank you.

I'm not seeing the halo effect you are talking about, but you could be right. It did have kind of glowing white edges, in the actual scene. You could also be seeing compression done by flickr, where the picture is hosted.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top