From the floor of the bog cathedral - a pitcher plant
I am enamored of black spruce/sphagnum bogs up here at the edge of the boreal forest. Among the variety of environments found at the southern edge of the Canadian Shield, they are easily my favorite. pH below 5 makes them very acidic, and a spruce tree a few inches thick might be 100 years old because of slow growth/acidic environment. Leatherleaf, laurel, rosemary, Labrador tea, spruce, tamarack and several types of orchids are only some of the plants that thrive here. I could spend a year simply trying to capture the many residents, moods and weathers of such a bog. (Hmmmm, sounds like a project!) :D
This is an image of the carnivorous pitcher plant, which sends up a flower that doesn't look too much like a flower. The longer I photograph wildflowers, the more I want to capture environment, and the way these spruces seemed to point to heaven with wide angle, the better I felt about the image.
Just as a point of fact, I was laying on my back in the sphagnum as the water flowed in around me, with the flower "bloom" just a foot above my head, and with my the back of my head mushed down into the sphagnum. The water was 4 inches deep and deepening when the elements all came together and I could make this image. A few seconds later the water would have started coming in my ears, and who knows how far the acid burn might have eaten into my brain?
This is not at all a typical look at a flora image, and I'm interested to see if this works for any of you. Thanks in advance for looking and commenting.
Canon 5D, Canon 17-40 f4L at 17mm, iso200, 1/25 at f16, handheld, gold reflector disk added fill underneath to match color temp of sun on spruces.
Last edited by Steve Foss; 08-11-2008 at 01:55 PM.
Excellent image Steve. It works fine for me - infact I found this very creative & different. The lighting u've provided to the bottom of the flower using gold reflector stands out special. Very well executed.
The only thing that keeps me from jumping up and down and screaming, "Yes! Yes!" is the bottom right corner...the trees seem to be a bit washed out compared to the others. Did you try to selectively dodge them at all? I think if they were the same tone as the rest of the image I'd be totally in love with this!
Works for me, I love 'different' and creative!! I admire the lengths you went to in order to make this image, Steve!! I think it would make a cool B&W image as well.
Good morning Steve. It works fine for me. And I have to agree with much of what has already been said. My only wish would have been that the flower was a couple of inches closer filling up a bit more of the open space in the center of the frame while still still keeping the ring of sky and trees. Ever hear of levitation? :eek: It would have gotten you closer and kept you out of the wet stuff. :D Very well done, Steve.
Anita, I'll give it a look in B&W. Thanks for the suggestion.
Ed, I was wondering if someone would bring that up. And I agree it could have been positioned just a little bit better. When I got up from shooting and checked the LCD I noticed the same thing. But I looked back down at the rootbeer colored bog water in the depression I'd just formed, considered laying back down in there and suddenly it occurred to me that what I had was good enough. :D :D :D
Your photo is amazing, and the story you wrote about taking it - with the swamp water flowing in around you - was indeed the nightmare every photographer wondered about when they first saw the image.
Bravo to you for braving the elements and getting the shot!