Oconee Bells

[Roman Kurywczak]

This is a wildflower.....but not native to NJ. Found it in Buck Gardens in Somerset County NJ. Might be my favorite place to photograph wildflower,flowers, and insects. The bloom is the size of a nickel.........and I was photographing it in natural light with the leaves as a BG.....they are waxy.........and didn't like the way they looked in the light. What to do..found a piece of 4 inch bark on the ground and used that for the BG about 3inches away from the bloom. wasn't in love with the light.....as it was a bit too bright....& I love the mt24 twin lights....when used correctly.....set the flash manualy at the 1/32nd power wit the Canon Mark 3 and the Sigma 180mm macro, hand held at f32 for 1/80 sec at ISO 800.

[denise ippolito]

Roman, I like the focus and your composition. Good idea using the bark.

[Ed Vatza]

Beautiful flower and beautiful treatment, Roman. I've taken to using bark as a background recently. It can work well.

The flower looks perfect. The dof is great and the whites are spot on. Great job!

[Julie Kenward]

What a neat wildflower...I don't think I've seen that one on this forum before. I think the bark could use a little more blur to it - I find my eye going to it quite a bit and looking at it instead of the beautiful flower. I think you really nailed the exposure.

I've been meaning to ask about your 1,000 candle flashlight...is it a maglite or something you can pick up at a hardware store?

[Mike Moats]

Hey Roman, interesting flower, great details and like the BG, well done.

[dawn campbell]

Great detail on your flower--I have the twin flash as well but rarely use it except with the MPE-65, which I also seem to rarely use. I should really play with the flash more!

[Anita Bower]

My first impression was of a beautifully captured wildflower. Great sharpness and detail in the flower itself. I think you solved the BG problem. I will try to remember that trick.