Photographer – Page 22 – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Christmas Tableau

Cozy Snowmen dance round the candle

December 23, 2020December 18, 2020 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

My dear wife Pam is the heart of Christmas in our home. Over the years we have collected a treasure of ornaments and knick-knacks she crafts into displays around our one. Pam completed the project well in advance of our grandchild holiday visits, before card writing and gift wrapping.

My contribution is a photographic time capsule. Here is some of my artistic output from this work.

This grouping of five cozy snowmen (three males, two females) are warmly dressed in knit sweaters and stocking caps; the women with long skirts. The five hold hands in a ring, rising from a common platform. We place a cup and devotional candle in the center.

The tiny group evokes community, harmony, amity. I captured them with a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III dslr, a fixed Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L macro lens mounted on a Manfrotto studio tripod and hydrostatic ball head. Fixed lenses provide the sharpest macros. The mounting allowed precise framing and use of the widest aperture and a low ISO. The light sources were sunlight from a large north facing bay window, a Canon Speedlite 600Ex-Rt and the candle. When used, the flash was angled in various ways toward the ceiling.

I start with a tight shot, maximum aperture. A single figure is in clear focus, the remaining gradually lost in the bokeh. The flash was used. I can almost see then circling around the candle in a winter wind.

Here the candle is lighted, aperture narrow to f8 using only the candle and ambient light (no flash). The group is visible within surrounding figures. I backed away and the viewpoint is higher.

The candle light enhances the perception of community.

Viewpoint is closer, still only the candle and ambient light. Aperture widened to 3.5. I must remove the hair in lightroom.

I backed off, aperture at the max with only the candle and ambient light. The figures are placed in a tableau with other snowmen and a structure, a birdhouse.

For this overview I swapped in a Canon 24mm f/1.4L II USM with a flash, aperture f2.2.

Christmas Snowman Display — Christmas 2017 snowman display laid out in our den on top of the entertainment cabinet.

With and Without People

always without water

December 16, 2020November 30, 2020 MichaelStephenWills

Pampa del Tamarugal National Reserve

Getty requires a signed photo release for each human in a photograph.

For this, the single best overview from our time with the Pintado Geoglyphs, I carefully painted out every human figure, our fellow tourists.

Here are the versions with and without human figures.

Click any photograph for a larger view and use Ctrl-x to zoom in closer.

Click me for the first post of this series.

Night Blooming Cereus VII

reaction to cold temperature

November 19, 2020October 28, 2020 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

For the final post of this series on Cereus blooms, of the four buds two failed to fully open after the weather turned cold in late September/Early October. Here is the failed bloom from the same opening bud featured in the last Cereus posting.

Click me for another Cereus flower post.

References

Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”

Night Blooming Cereus VI

soon to open

November 17, 2020October 26, 2020 MichaelStephenWills16 Comments

Here is a continuation of the previous Cereus posting, the ultimate macros of a bloom on the edge of opening.

Click me for another Cereus flower post.

References

Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”

Night Blooming Cereus V

evening preparation

November 15, 2020October 24, 2020 MichaelStephenWills11 Comments

Almost bursting open, the third of four flower buds of our Night Blooming Cereus caught one October evening just before opening. The black background is repurposed anit-weed ground cover material.

Here is a series of flash photographs at varying apertures and angles. The white rods are emerging anthers, the pollen-containing tips of long stamens seen in my previous postings of the open flowers.

Click me for another Cereus flower post.

References

Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”

Night Blooming Cereus IV

What is this plant?

November 12, 2020October 22, 2020 MichaelStephenWills8 Comments

Bloom #2 of this season. Two more in the wings. I broke out the flash and the Canon 100 mm “macro” lens for this series taken an hour after sunrise before this one-night-only bloom wilted.

Click me for another flower post, “Another Woody Peony.”

References

Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”

Night Blooming Cereus III

Source of popular name?

November 3, 2020October 30, 2020 MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

In an earlier posts the popular name of this plant, “Night Blooming Cereus” was introduced as incorrect, still there must be some truth in the name, I believe it is found in the developing flower stalk and bud.

“Cereus” is from the Greek word for candle. Don’t these developing flower stalks, resemble a candle and the bud a flame?

Click image for a larger version.

Here’s the flower from an earlier bloom this season.

Click me for another flower post, “Another Woody Peony.”

References

Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”

Night Blooming Cereus II

What is this plant?

October 15, 2020October 24, 2020 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

Epiphyllum oxypetalum, the scientific name for this plant identifies the name “Night Blooming Cereus” as incorrect. The plant is of the genus Epiphyllum, identifying it as an epiphytic organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it.

Nor is it in the tribe Cereeae, derived from the Greek and Latin word for “wax”, “torch” or candle. Plants of the Cereeae tribe, including those in the genus Cereus, are cactus with a columnar structure, are are terrestrial, not epiphytic, plants.

Epiphyllum oxypetalum, also know as Dutchman’s pipe cactus, princess of the night, queen of the night, is a species of cactus and one of the most cultivated species in its genus. E. oxypetalum rarely blooms and only at night, and its flowers are reported to wilt before dawn.

The species name oxypetalum is derived from the word, “oxy” meaning sharp, pointed, acute for the characteristic petal shape.

For the bloom photographed here, I can report it was in this condition 7 am, after sunrise, and did not wilt until after noon.

Click me for the next post of this series.

References

Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”

Night Blooming Cereus I

Photomerge vs. high f-stop

October 13, 2020October 14, 2020 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

It is possible to puzzled over my choice of an ungainly potted plant acquired over two years ago from the Eddydale farm stand. We popped in for tomatoes, sweet corn and watermelons after a hike along nearby Treman Park, I spotted the plant on display in the front. The cashier suggested we visit the greenhouse to view the parent, currently in bloom. Memory of the blossoms were short lived as we lived with this collection of malformed green lobes sprouting long stalks.

The plant occupied a pool-side water barrel summers, a bedroom corner winters. This year, 2020, flower buds formed late July, one on a lengthening stalk. “Dutchman’s pipe cactus” is a popular name, from the appearance of the flower on the end of a stalk turned up with a terminal curve.

Keeping a watch eye on progress, I noted a swelling on Wednesday, September 23rd morning, more pronounced by evening. First thing Thursday morning the flower was in full glory. I used a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with the Canon EF 70 – 300 mm lens. The variable focal length lens can be used for macros, offering more flexibility compared to the 100 mm macro lens.

For the first three photographs of this series I used the Photoshop feature Photomerge, combining 12 or so image files. For each file the camera was mounted on a Manfrotto BeFree carbon fiber tripod with a ball head. Focus was on manual and, using the screen of the Canon 5D I gradually changed the focus, crisp focus moving between planes. In theory, the Photomerge chooses the best focus for each image producing a perfect result.

As the session progressed the scene brightened and for these last two photographs I used aperture priority at the highest value (36) and autofocus.

Here is a comparison of a merged and high aperture photograph.

Click me for another flower post, “Another Woody Peony.”

Salt Road

Summer View with Clouds

October 9, 2020September 17, 2020 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

Travel to Fillmore Glen from our former home included a climb to an overlook of the Fall Creek valley, seen here on a summer afternoon in four parts.

Three exposures using a 50 mm Canon lens on a Kodak dslr. A tripod allowed me good orientation and, later, to use the Photoshop photoMerge feature to combine exposures into a panorama. At that time, I was limited to the 50 mm lens.