My favorite wildflower to take pix of is............

Spiderwort. Nothing is a close second. I teach photogrpahy. A class on how to take pix of flowers, another on composition. (etc.) I love the colors and contrast between the pistils and stamens, the curving leaves. For the composiiton class I have a folder of just flowers and a subfloder of just Spiderwort pix. They are erect which helps blur the background and makes them easier for this old man to reach. Anyone else discover all the comopositional possibilities of this wildflower yet? Gene

Interesting thread Gene.

I have not made a study of the spiderwort, but I can imagine the possibilities. I have quite a stand of it myself and should take a look.

The shot that is my favorite could be any single flower from any plant in a macro with the garden bed behind it usually in a riot of color.

I teach many photography classes. Including one on flower pix and one on macro. Gene

asters! i love them, especially in fron of goldenrod! the contrast and the lighting of fall and the butterflies and bees. yup. asters. hands down

Spiderwort Is a great one. Unskilled as I am, I have a really good picture of one somewhere. the yellow stamens are simple but they glow against the petal color. I just didn't 'realize' how the other traits of the plant helped it photograph so well.

OK, some examples of my pix I use in my composition class and also the flower pix class. Gene

5 more. Gene

Wonderful!

Your photos are indeed wonderful, gasrocks. I'm a terrible photographer, but am trying to learn to take better photos because I need them to help me identify plants. I photographed this flower (Commelina communis, Asiatic dayflower) while I was in the woods today and was surprised to learn that it is in the same family as spiderworts.

If I had the necessary skills, I'd like to take time lapse photos of a bee prying its way into a turtlehead flower, disappearing for a few seconds, then backing out after getting the nectar.

Muddy1 - send me a D-mail and I may be able to make some suggestions on how to do better. Gene

I agree. The photos are so nice. I don't know that I have a favorite to photograph but I do come back to the asters a lot. And the Celandine poppies and wild violets. Luv wild violets.

I keep thinking about the many wildflowers with compound flower heads of many tiny florets, like Eupatoriums. It seems hard to take a picture of those with any sort of 'style'

Mistflower, Conoclinium coelestinum.... an Anne Arundel county native....

i tried posting a picture from my iphone, i will have to try again i see! :)
i love those mist flowers!

Nice, Kate- you got those tiny stamens against the dark background.

Lovely photos, Gene! The depth of field and selective focus is spot on.

Also enjoyed seeing Muddy1's Dayflower and 2gardenkate's mist flower.

I love to photograph wildflowers - all the way from macro/close-ups to huge fields of flowers. I don't have any good shots of spiderwort, but I will be on the lookout for some in the future.

Thanks for starting this thread, Gene. I enjoyed seeing your photos. You captured the graceful forms in the spiderwort.

Sally, I got lucky with the mist flower shot. I took it in the morning and the background was in shadow. My hubby got me a new digital camera in August and I'm still learning how to use it. New camera has two macro modes. One is "super duper close up". I'm learning how to use the different metering modes, too.

gasrocks

I "borrowed" your first photo and put in my editing program to see how it would lookwith a lighter exposure. It shows more details now.

Nope I am not keeping your photo. I was just experimenting. Hope you don't mind.

Favorites are whattever is in bloom, cant upload digitals til i cave and buy a new laptop, so phone pix have to do, they don't edit nor print well, tho. Also have issues with uv needing filters...

Kittriana, are those New England Asters in your second photo? We have a surprise patch in our pasture, plus some in our "wannabe prairie" and I've been trying to identify them. Their leaves are similar to yours.

I call my spiderwort, Cow Slobber. I had ample opportunity to photograph it this year. It started blooming 4 June and even today, 6 October, I still have some opening. I am amazed. This photo is from June.

After the first blooms, I tend to only photograph if there is something interesting, like this sweat bee species.

The Halberd-leaf Rose Mallow was a favourite this year merely because it took three years to bloom. I tried catching it at different times of day and really like the colour before it faded in the sun. I learned it really likes water and I think that might have been the problem in past years. We had enough rain that it did bloom until a week ago.

very nice Chillybean

how was in Pennsylvania and Ohio and caught the New England asters there, spiderwort is almost a grass when you mow it blooms very short and very tall. I did discover this smartphone does really good pictures up close- do these pictures fuzz up when on the comp? you will have to let me know.
Tradescantia, stray lemon shrooms, Mex link petunia

great pics Kittriana, nice and clear

Thanx, am surprised, now to learn to quit trusting my cellphones' speech processor, sigh

Thank you sallyg. :)

I have a Canon Powershot SX40, if I remember. I bought it for its massive (at the time) zoom for far away birds. It has a macro setting, but even so, I notice the pictures are often grainy or not focused. If/when I get another camera, I hope to find one that can do close-up as well as distant photos.

Just popping in....

This is my New England Aster. It is very prolific.
Grows in a horrible bed--right next to a huge Silver maple.
Doesn't seem to mind all the roots...

Gita

Beautiful, Gitagal. I have several New England Asters.

I posted a digital pic in plantfiles of a Caroliniana anemone. One shot was good, the rest were so so, but ah! The fits with trying to get past the straight on ultraviolets on the inside of the flower! I caved and quit trying with the limits on what I had in my hand. Still, DO they make uv filters for cameras?




http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/73488/

Of course they make UV filters. However, they do little to change the image. Mostly just for protection on the front of the lens. UV is not your problem. Send me a D-mail if you like and I can try to help you do better. Gene

Gita, your New England Aster looks lovely!

Kittriana, those photos good enough to be very helpful for ID purposes. Looks like you're the first to post photos of them in Plant Files; good for you!