Out in the yard

I am not getting out in the woods in the parks, but I am getting out in the yard. Here are two flowers I have a hard time shooting. These are the best shots I have managed to date. I was very lucky to get the Lilly of the Valley facing upward.

Here is a Spicebush. It is interesting to look at and the flower smells like apples, spiced apples.





Here is a Lilly of the Valley. Each tiny white flower is about the size of a pea.





All shot with a Tamron 90mm Di on a D70

Hey Jeff,

The light on the first two..though the light on the second is just beautiful. Very nicely done. Are you making any special preparations, or is this just how you are seeing them?

James

Thank you. All flowers still in the yard and doing well:) Well they are doing ok, the general lack of rain is a bitch.

The first was done with a single flash manually set, bounced off a Lumiquest card, from above me on the right. I wanted to darken the background and since the flower is dark, I wanted more then the shadows provided.

The second was sunlight at about 13:30 according to the EXIF. I like the “harsh” mid day light for some flowers.

The third and forth are natural direct sunlight at 4:30 in the evening.

So, I guess no, I made no special preparations. However since they are in my yard, I can keep coming back time and again until I see the right conditions. In this case the conditions were good direct light, availability of good shadows for a background, the amount the flower was open and the accessibility to a nice bloom in the above conditions without lugging a stepladder down there:)