I guess I post a photo of this flower every year:
Dewdrop (Dalibarda repens)
because it is one of my favorites. Every year I post this, I say the same thing – that this is the flower that taught me how to use a camera.
I used to have a Canon A85, which was a nice point-and-shoot, but it absolutely could not capture a decent image of this flower when left to its own automatic devices. Also, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I learned a few things right away: don’t use flash for macro shots. Also, use the macro setting when taking a macro shot. Also, “macro” means “close to the subject.” I also learned not to use the zoom in a macro shot.
These days, I put the camera about an inch from any macro subject – or how ever close I can get and fill the frame.
Those were the easy lessons. The harder ones were to set the exposure time manually, what the ISO setting does (I set mine as low as I can), and what the f-stop does (I try to max that out, even though a lot of people like low f-stops for macros – I’m not one of those people!)
With the f-stop maxed and the ISO minimized, that means the exposure time has to be long, and long exposures blur unless the camera is held perfectly still. So I use a tiny tripod. But when I press the button, the camera shakes, and that can blur the image too. So I make it wait two seconds after I release the button before it takes the picture.
Lastly (for now), if the camera won’t autofocus on the subject because it’s too small, I place my finger in the frame as near the subject as I can, and then let the AF do its thing by pressing the “take the picture” button halfway down. Then I move my finger out of the way. If I bumped the subject, I wait for it to stop moving. Then I press the button the rest of the way down.
But it was this plant that taught me all of that.
June 27, 2014 at 9:27 pm
I always love to see that flower and always wish they grew here.
June 27, 2014 at 9:32 pm
There are not many blooms this year, and I suspect it is because my neighbor pretty much clear-cut his property, and these grow near the boundary. I think they like shade.
I saw the first one this year about a week ago, but it was not a very photogenic specimen. Kinda lop-sided and wonky. Another one bloomed in the second patch about a hundred feet away, and though it was more symmetric, it wasn’t great looking either. Finally, today, a third one bloomed, and this is it.
I do love this one though, even when it’s wonky!
June 28, 2014 at 8:06 am
It taught you well-there’s nothing wrong with that photo. I know of only one place that this plant grows and it is 45 minutes from here. I’ve traveled there for the last two weeks hoping for blooms, but haven’t seen one yet.
I think a lot of plants were seriously affected by last winter. There is no sign of chicory at all and the native rhododendrons don’t have a single flower bud on them that I can see.
June 28, 2014 at 8:22 am
Chicory is a very rare sight in this part of NH. I would even dare to say that it just doesn’t grow here.
I know of two places where Dalibarda grows – in my woods, and in Washington, NH.
June 28, 2014 at 8:00 pm
Life is so full of lessons, I see from your picture this year that you believe that as well.
June 28, 2014 at 8:13 pm
When we quit learning, we quit living.