Month: December 2014

Friday Floral – Paper Whites

Published on by tbeckerphotos2 Comments

Traditional paper whites and macro photography was not part of Plan B yesterday nor a potential subject for a Friday Floral post.  Whilst most people think of poinsettias as being the traditional flower during the Christmas season, paper whites are another traditional flower.  Paper whites (Narcissus tazetta) are a bulb flower that is easy to grow and native to Europe and Asia.  This fragrant flower is part of the daffodil family, but is quite smaller. This winter flower is quite delicate with its clusters of star-shaped flowers and long thin stems and used in many simple and elegant floral arrangements. An interesting note, this bulb flower only blooms once unlike other bulb flowers.

In my previous post, Poinsettias and Raindrops, I mentioned a Plan B.  I worked on that plan yesterday and will write about it  another day. You can click on the photo to view a high resolution image and/or purchase a print.  For now, paper whites and macro photography for this week’s Friday Floral post.

paper white flowers
Paper white flowers (Narcissus tazetta) a beautiful winter flower

Poinsettias and Raindrops

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While out and about tonight, I saw a large grouping of red poinsettias and it had just rained.  Flowers and raindrops, two of my favorite macro photography subjects!  And only a handful of people around.  Unfortunately, I only had my compact camera with me and oh how I wish my regular camera gear had been with me!

The raindrops in the very low available light looked like rubies laying on the petals.  I had to raise the ISO to 3200 creating an extreme amount of noise in the images.  Even with post processing in Lightroom and using the noise reduction tool, the images still look grainy.  Additional noise reduction made the petals too smooth, so I settled for the grain.

The forecast is for more rain tonight and tomorrow morning.  I’m hoping the forecast is correct and that I can attempt to make some similar images with my regular gear.  As these are displayed in public, but on private property, I’ll need to make sure I have permission to shoot with my regular macro photography setup.  If not, I already have a Plan B!  Who can resist beautiful red poinsettias and raindrops?