Lily Festival (C&C appreciated)

invisible · Jul 21, 2008

Yesterday I drove 200 km to Neepawa, a small town of 3,500 known as the "Lily Capital of the World". The occasion was the Neepawa & Area Lily Festival, ideal to take a few snapshots of flowers here and there.

All shot handheld with Nikon D70s, 18-200mm VR, plus a Canon 500D close-up lens.

C&C appreciated, as this was my first real macro shoot ever (albeit without a real macro lens...).

Thanks for looking!

Jaymz77 · Jul 22, 2008

The second one for sure! Nice job!

Antarctican · Jul 22, 2008

Wow, a lily festival? I'd be there in a flash if it was anywhere close to here. The colours (and scent) must be wonderful.

Lovely set of photos. Cool how in the first one just the powder covered bits are in focus. And I love the composition of the second.

manaheim · Jul 22, 2008

Oh I like that second one a LOT. Flower photos bore me to tears, but a picture from behind with the nice greens in the distance? Very very nice. OMG just absolutely beautiful. I would instantly print that and hang it.

invisible · Jul 22, 2008

Antarctican said:
Wow, a lily festival? I'd be there in a flash if it was anywhere close to here. The colours (and scent) must be wonderful.

Neepawa turned out to be a very beautiful little town, pretty colourful even without the flowers. There were lilies of every conceivable shape and colour, but curiously enough there was no scent at all. Visitors seemed to be in love with what they saw, so the lack of scent was definitely not a problem

Thanks everybody for your comments. Any constructive criticism? Regarding the first image, is there any way to get some more depth of field?

manaheim · Jul 22, 2008

I'm nominating that second shot there... I just keep coming back to stare at it. I really think it's beautiful. I wish I had a print of that. Lemme know if you decide to sell them.

invisible · Jul 22, 2008

manaheim said:
I'm nominating that second shot there... I just keep coming back to stare at it. I really think it's beautiful. I wish I had a print of that. Lemme know if you decide to sell them.

Well, I feel sincerely honoured. This is the second month in a row that a photo of mine is nominated, so thanks much, I really appreciate it.

If you are serious about buying the photo, just PM me your best offer. Even if we don't reach an agreement, I'm glad you liked this one so much.

invisible · Jul 24, 2008

invisible said:
Thanks everybody for your comments. Any constructive criticism? Regarding the first image, is there any way to get some more depth of field?

I'm bumping this one to see if I can get an answer to the above. Thanks in advance!

manaheim · Jul 24, 2008

A smalller aperature or taking the picture from a further distance (or both) would give you more depth of field. Check out my handy-dandy explanation thread:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130556

invisible · Jul 24, 2008

manaheim said:
A smalller aperature or taking the picture from a further distance (or both) would give you more depth of field. Check out my handy-dandy explanation thread:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130556

That is really a neat guide. I was already aware of the info covered there though.

I didn't state it, but my question was specific to macro photography. When you shoot with a macro lens (or a macro setup like mine, described above), the DOF gets really shallow, so it's not always easy to get your subject in focus –especially if it's moving, like an insect.

The sweet spot for my close-up lens (and for most macro lenses if I'm not mistaken) is around f/11-f/13, which is what I used for these images. Using a smaller aperture would've forced me to use either a slower shutter speed (with the risk of a blurry image) or a higher ISO (noise).

I now realise I wasn't clear above, so maybe I should rephrase the original question: Regarding the first image, is there any way to get some more DOF without using a smaller aperture?