growth & decay
cucumber and tomato seeds sprout with new hope
a forgotten split apple withers and rots
cycles of life and death, growth and decay
You are browsing the Blog for Nature Archives - Page 20 of 29 - Marja-Leena Rathje.
by Marja-Leena by Marja-Leena cucurbita
What a busy week with appointments and intense work in the studio including one rough day when things were not working for me.
Aah, Saturday morning. Sleeping in a little. Dawdling over breakfast. Time to smell the roses or play with the camera again. A handy subject in the kitchen for deep study.
by Marja-Leena bee sighting
I’m so excited. As I was coming home from the studio, I was admiring my bed of blue muscari (grape hyacinths) and yellow mini-daffodils glowing in the warm afternoon sun by the front steps. I went inside for my SLR camera and came out again. As I began to focus, lo, there was this busy bee. I managed two decent photos before it flew away. The slight breeze even paused at the right moments. Just look at the pollen on its body! How lucky can one get? I wonder what kind of bee it is, I don’t think it’s a mason….
PS: I’d like to wish all my readers a happy, sunny and warm spring or fall equinox tomorrow! I think we’ll be out working in the garden, taking advantage of the glorious sunny weather before the next wave of rains moves in Sunday. And I’m late getting my seeds started so no time for blogging!
by Marja-Leena hippeastrum, withering
this flower a few weeks later….
bittersweet beauty in the dying,
like the transparent skin and veins
of an ancient elder’s hands
by Marja-Leena hippeastrum
More flower shots, a study of a gorgeous amaryllis.
I just can’t help myself for these remind me of Georgia O’Keeffe.
Odd this passion, for I’ve never used flowers in my paintings or prints.
by Marja-Leena leaf lace
a finely delicate, yet strong, lace-like skeleton of a magnolia leaf….
by Marja-Leena macros: January garden
Thank you all for the comments and conversation on my last post about my efforts on learning macro photography.
Above are the photos I took that same day outdoors in our garden using the same lens as before. The afternoon sun was getting lower and weaker and starting to hide behind some tall trees. The top image is a little blurry because of a slight breeze but I still like it very much. I’m very pleased with the results and again, I wish you could see them much larger. I did, this time, do some slight adjustments of the levels on all of these images, in PhotoShop.
I’ve been wanting to share a well-known quote I recently reread that resonates for me in many ways:
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
– Albert Schweitzer
from Artist Quote of the Day, with thanks to my friend Dorothy
by Marja-Leena on macro photography
As I’ve mentioned previously, this new year I’ve been learning how to do macro photography with our DSLR camera, first with a zoom-macro lens, then with extension tubes. So far I’ve been happiest with a single 36 mm extension tube joined with the regular lens (18-55mm). There are two more rings or tubes that I will be testing out some more in different combinations.
After a few practice sessions here are the most important lessons I’ve learned and am noting here for my own records and for any readers who may be interested:
1. One needs very good light conditions. The length of the macro ‘tube’ reduces the amount of light reaching the sensor (‘film’). Dark rainy days are not conducive to this kind of photography. Yesterday’s sunshine let me do a lot of work in the solarium with easy and still subjects in my flowers and plants, and a few outdoors in the garden as well.
2. One must use a tripod. Any shake is amplified in macro resulting in very blurry shots!
3. Even better, use the timer setting on the camera. Even manually pressing the shutter while the camera is on the tripod can move the camera a little. We attempted a shutter cable from our ancient film SLR camera but there is no input on our DSLR. Great invention, the timer!
4. Largest f-stop (smallest lens opening) is generally best. See #1.
5. Eyeglasses get in the way of focusing! Setting the diopter adjustment in the camera to my own vision in the right eye (similar to ones on binoculars) allowed me to focus more clearly, though it is annoying to keep taking glasses on and off (wear something with generous pockets!).
6. One need lots of time to set up the tripod and camera and focus! Practice will improve speed I’m sure.
7. All this heavy equipment – a big camera, different lenses and a tripod – means that I’m not likely to take these along on quick casual walks. The little point-and-shoot is pretty good for that. When I really must take the superior equipment, I will have to use one of those upright shopping carts on wheels, even if it makes me look like a bag lady 🙂
All this is old-hat to expert photographers so please don’t laugh at my amateurish struggles. I’m learning (thanks to husband’s patient help) and getting ever more excited by the results. Whoo-hoo!
No adjustments to these photos have been made in iPhoto or PhotoShop other than resizing and compressing for the web. I wish you could see them full-screen size! More photos to come….
by Marja-Leena on the seashore
More photos from a recent walk…. what can I say?
Somewhat related, from the archives: CARcass on shore