Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens Summer 2016

Over the last 8 years I've been to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens a bunch of times, mostly looking for the Yellow Crowned Night Herons. But also other birds and the great Lotus flowers and water lilies.

This year there weren't any YCNH's that I spotted, so I photographed the Lotus a *lot*.

Sometimes the petals would fall off quickly, in a sort of chain reaction once the first one broke free. I'd never seen that before, it was cool.



The YCNH's were great in 2008. I went multiple times and got some close ups and some feeding photos...







The second to last time I went this year I shot the water lilies in the back, and the light was pretty good. I used a 600mm lens, which I would normally use for birds, and I shot the flowers...



Just prior to this visit I had gone to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens I think 5 times, and the first few times I took a normal approach and shot the flowers with a long lens, and had hoped to see birds, but still shot the flowers. The images I got were "normal" and looked ok. I was happy with them at the time. But they were like many other images I've taken and seen others take. This one with the Red-Winged Black Bird was a highlight. The birds were in the flowers and I could shoot them for just a few minutes before they flew off.

#rwbb #redwingedblackbird #lotus #flower #feeding #feasting #eating #kenilworthaquaticgardens #kag #bird #birds #birdsofinstagram #birdstagram #nikographer #red #green

A photo posted by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Aug 11, 2016 at 5:37am PDT

So this year on visits 4 and 5, I brought some macro gear and shot much closer images of the flowers and got much different and I think better results.

#lotus #flowers #flower #KAG #kenilworthaquaticgardens #naturephotography #naturelovers #natureshots #flowerstagram #macro #closeup #nikographer #nikon #highkey #crunchy #waterdrops #garden

A photo posted by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Aug 8, 2016 at 10:22am PDT

#lotus #flower #KAG #nikographer #nature #flowers #flower #closeup #flowerstagram #naturephotography #summer #macro #bee #petal

A photo posted by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Aug 9, 2016 at 5:55pm PDT

#lotus #dof #flower #kag #kenilworthaquaticgardens #nikographer #nature #naturephotography #naturelovers #naturelover #flowers

A photo posted by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Aug 8, 2016 at 10:19am PDT

As I reflect on the half a dozen-ish visit I've made to KAG before this year, and then the 6 or 7 visits I made this year I noticed how it took a few visits to shoot through the shots and approach I had in my head already. It took that long to then be able to try to think differently, to see the gardens and flowers differently and to get different images.

#KAG #kenilworthaquaticgardens #lotus #flower #macro #nikographer

A photo posted by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Aug 17, 2016 at 7:10am PDT

On the last few visits I still brought a long lens (600mm) but I also brought a 70-200mm f/2.8 and a 24-120mm f/4 lens, along with the Canon 500D closeup filter for a 77mm lens ring. By using that filter I was able to turn both lenses in to very close focusing lenses that gave drastically different shooting distances and super narrow depth of field.

I'm happy with the results I got this year. It took a bunch of visits to get lucky with the RWBB and then to start to see and shoot the flowers in a new way. In the future I guess I hope to be able to push past what I had planned and the way I was seeing things initially, and start to see in a fresher/different way like I did on visits 4 and 5 with the macro shots.

I've been meditating and practicing mindfulness this year and last year, and as I read what I just wrote above, I think that is a result of this new approach to life. It's all too easy to have a plan, work towards a plan, and then either execute on the plan and be happy, or not execute on the plan and be disappointed. But with a fresh approach and fewer expectations, and a more flexible nature new and unexpected things can happen.

-Jon

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

Nikographer.com / Jon

Flowers and Colors - Get out, Cross-train

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

I've written about some local spots before, and here's another one.



Nature and wildlife photography takes many trips, lots of attempts and visits to locations. While there are good habits, and techniques, much of it is chance and luck. So, I've found some of the best ways to get good images is to find spots that are not too far of a drive (maybe 30 minutes away or less) and then go often.

With days that are longer than 12 hours, I like to take time to go some where either before or after work. If I get off of work at 5 or 6, and sunset is at 7:30 or 8:30, that's a good amount of time to shoot if it is close by.

I live north of DC and that means Great Falls is close, and there are just a ton of parks, gardens that are good candidates for working.

Even though I like to shoot mostly wildlife and landscapes, I have been getting in the habit of going to a local garden (brookside). They have many varieties of flowers. Just a couple weeks ago almost nothing was in bloom when I went, but I got some decent pansy shots and posted this one.

For me it becomes an exercise in color, composition, and trying to really see more or better, and control things. With wildlife that's harder to try and practice. With landscapes it is somewhat doable, but you cannot control color or light much (sun, time of day, weather conditions - not too controllable) except for getting out a ton and picking the right DAYS...

But with flowers it is straightforward. In a way I would consider flower photography cross-training for me. It is a related but different skillset that I hope to learn from and apply to other areas of photography.

Tonight I stopped by the gardens for less than an hour, and took/made some images. While there I also saw a bunch of american robins, and a pair of red-winged blackbirds. On previous trips I've seen a kingfisher, and baltimore oriole, geese and ducks. One of these days I'm going to get some good wildlife photos here. It might turn in to my next find like the heron from last year. Who knows. And because the gardens are managed and well maintained there should be a good variety and turn over in the flowers/subjects, which means colors.

On a technical note, I've been shooting the flowers mostly with my 80-400mm, and a close up lens, and with extension tube(s) off of a tripod. No flash, and no reflector (yet), and I've not brought a spray bottle of water either...

And color should not be underrated a photographic element of its own.



-50-

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

Nikographer.com / Jon