Bee on a Tattered Heliopsis Flower

I have been doing a lot of macro work lately, mostly studying my favorite summer garden flowers: oxeye (aka heliopsis).

The oxeye blossom has an interesting life-cycle, that may be the subject of a future post. In the following image, I found a blossom near the end of its lifespan: the petals are coming apart and the whole appearance of the flower is ... tattered.

Still, there was apparently enough pollen and nectar left in the center to make it interesting enough for bees to come visiting.



Because there was a slight wind causing the blossom to sway on its long stalk and because the bees where buzzing about, I decided to shoot hand-held, not from a tripod. Despite the bright afternoon sun, I needed some additional flash in order to get the short exposure time required to eliminate motion blur.

So there I was holding the camera in my left hand and a speedlite attached via a short cord in the other hand ... No idea what the neighbors where thinking, but then, they should be used to me by now. :-)

I think I will get a flash bracket real soon now.
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Pink Anemone XXV

About three quarters of a year after Anemone against the Light I have created another image of a pink anemone flower, this time lit from the front.

Anemone XXV

The flower was growing in the shade of a hedge, so a speedlight to camera left provided additional light. I used a reflector to camera right to soften up the shadows.

Decaying Beauty and Lavender Rose

I've been quite busy lately, fortunately not too busy to test the wonderful Canon EF 100/2.8L USM Macro lens. We've had a lot of rain so the garden is not offering quite its usual abundance of flowers, but I've managed to get a few passable pictures:

Decaying Beauty

and

Lavender Rose

Both are roses, of course, the first being well past its prime, with the petals all wilted and gone. It was taken in available light using just a tripod for support.

The second is a fresh rose with lavender. I place both in a small vase, hung up a black cloth for the background, and used two speedlights for lighting. The first is to camera right, the second is to camera left, behind the flower.