Forcing Forsythia
By: Jconnphoto
Tags: 365 blog, 365 photo blog, Flower, Forsythia, Home, light, MA, New England, photo, photo blog, Photography, project 365, spring, yellow
| Aperture: | f/9 |
|---|---|
| Focal Length: | 200mm |
| ISO: | 640 |
| Shutter: | 1/1250 sec |
| Camera: | Canon EOS 5D Mark II |
Photo blog day 239, April 9, 2011
I have been so desperately waiting for spring to arrive and the flowers to bloom I couldn’t wait any longer. We are nearly two weeks into April and still not a single bloom in my yard. For various reasons it takes 2 weeks longer for spring to reach my yard than it does in my old yard in Springfield. A few days ago a coworkers asked why I don’t go ahead and force some forsythia’s. I remember my mom always putting sticks in a vase on our table when I was a kid and then a few days later they would have these yellow flowers on them. I had completely forgotten that you could do this! So, I cut some “sticks” and put them in warm water 4 days ago. Yesterday the yellow peeked out of the buds and this morning this is what we woke up to! Spring! On my kitchen table. Yay!!!
For this shot I didn’t use any special lighting for this shot, just the good ol’ sun. I laid a black t-shirt on the deck (it was hanging on the clothesline and handy when I needed it!). Then I propped up against my grill and used my 70-200 mm lens zoomed out to 200 (macro). In Lightroom I moved the “blacks” slider to the right until it completely blacked out the background making it look like it was a black backdrop. Using the blacks slider is something I learned a while ago when you already have a dark background and want to bump it a bit to make it look like fine art. I’ve used the same technique in my “Snowy Flowers” and “Pussy Willow” posts. And if you’re wondering about the shutter speed/ISO, it was pretty windy out so I knew needed a super fast shutter speed.
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