Jun 27
Wood cranesbill
I’ve had another day to play with the Canon 100mm f2.8L IS macro, but the pictures are few and far apart – not sure why but I’m just not coming across any subjects I like. 
The picture of the very pale heath spotted orchid is getting close to the closest focusing distance of the lens, but it’s nothing that my 150mm macro couldn’t have done. The wood cranesbill though, it would’ve been tricky to pull off with the long macro. I was shooting straight down on it and there wasn’t a lot of light in the forest, 
so the shutter speed was 1/80 at f2.8 (ISO 100). In order to get the flowers the same size in the frame I would’ve had to stand up straight, go to a higher ISO to get a fast enough shutter speed so I could hope to get something sharp. I’m not sure if it would’ve been possible to set up the tripod in such a way that I could angle down the camera, while still being able to see through the viewfinder!
So that’s definitely one for the shorter IS lens, I think that this is the best wood cranesbill picture I have. Just because the flower grows everywhere doesn’t mean that I have lots of pictures of it!
But no, I’m still not even considering of trading the long macro for this shorter IS macro. Maybe it’s not possible to take exactly the same pictures with these lenses, but who needs that anyway? If it’s not possible to take some particular picture, then you just come up with another one and don’t dwell over the might-have-beens. You work with what you’ve got!
3 comments
Orchids…plaaaaaaaaah
Wood cranesbill, now we are talking! You have shown so many orchid pictures that I’m nearly done with the subject 
Wood cranesbill is my all time favorite, absolutely one of the most beautiful flowers in our nature. Almost all Geranium species suits, but this one is absolutely the one for me!
Don’t worry, you don’t have to see many more orchid pictures from me. Now that I’ve seen and photographed them all, and most of them many times over, I’m starting to run out of ideas!
I’ve never thought anything special about the cranesbills. It’s a nice addition of colour in nature, but I guess I tend to overlook it a little bit just because it is as common as it is. Which is wrong… a flower should never be uninteresting just because it grows everywhere!
Case in point: I found some strange looking leaves a few weeks ago and nobody I asked had any idea what plant is was. I was mystified and of course I started thinking that I’ve come across something very special. Then I did some more research and found that it’s a fairly common cat’s ear (Hypochaeris maculata), and I almost lost interest for it. And then I was told that this flower has never before been seen in Loos (it’s common further south in Sweden), and so I’m thinking again that it would be worth photographing anyway. But honestly… the flower looks exactly the same whether it’s rare or not! I think the botanist and the photographer in me are fighting a battle, let’s see who wins.
Hmm, looks like dandelion, skip it