I was in Claireville today with my friend Nigel shooting some macro photography. Mostly it was a hike where we took a few photos and chatted. It’s harder to get inspired once autumn begins to fade. It hasn’t gone yet but here in Claireville, autumn has mostly moved on.
Elfdock
But sometimes you find something interesting to photograph, if you look hard enough. These Elfdock were dried up and standing tall in open fields. Using a shallow depth of field, I was able to focus on just the one grouping and blur out the rest in the background.
Milkweed
It had rained a little this afternoon so this Milkweed still had some raindrops on it. This gave it a little more interest. I used the same technique as I did in the first photo to blur out the background, keeping the focus on the one plant. That’s the benefit to using a macro lens. When getting up close and personal with a small object the background becomes much softer allowing the focus to be on a specific part of what you’re photographing,
Common Blue Wood Aster
Deep on the forest trail we found these small blooms. Up until now I’ve predominantly seen the purple aster but this is the Common Blue Wood Aster. It seems that asters really like the fall weather. In my research, I found out that these small flowers are important food sources for butterflies, bees and other insects in the fall months. Once these flowers go to seed the birds will also be able to benefit in fall and into the winter months. Nifty little plants and another nice walk around the park.
