Arizona Treks

 Yesterday the photographing continued without the orange yesterday.  flowers, an old root I found in the desert many years ago, rope, etc.  Interesting to see the progression of this session.  It has taken on a life of it's own and I am simply an observer, or so it seems.  The photos made yesterday were not heavily cropped but the background is out of place in one corner on several. 

One of the nice things about photographing like this is you can control and experiment to the limit of your creativity and ability.  It builds your skills in seeing compositions, highlights and shadows, etc.  It helps to build your technical skills.  It is a great way to improve your skills and make some nice photographs in the process.

The photo above is the only one so far that used a single light.  This is a small 100ws strobe with a snoot.  The strobe is on a boom above and slightly to the left-front of the bloom.  I wanted to see how dramatic it would be and am quite pleased with it.

Most of the rest used 2 lights.  The one below and a few others used the small strobe on the boom in addition to the other lights.  The last time I shot flowers and uses strobes there were some double shadows which made it obvious that there were 2 lights involved.  More care was taken this time to avoid double shadows.  The results of these additional care is that the shadows and highlights are more natural looking.

One of the negatives from the first day was printed yesterday.  I was concerned about the short column on the enlarger preventing the heavy cropping necessary, even for 8X10.  But had the bright idea of trying the 90mm enlarger lens.  This worked only because the scenes were shot knowing that cropping would be necessary do the desired part of the negative was in the center.  The 90mm lens worked great except it is a poor quality lens and I would prefer a better one. In time perhaps a better one will be in order but for now, a really good 105mm Rodenstock lens will simply have to wait.