Creative Nature Photography by Bill Coster

Author:Bill Coster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: PHO018000, PHO013000
ISBN: 9781553658481
Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre
Published: 2011-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

SAGUARO CACTI (Carnegia gigantea)

Canon EOS 1n, 300mm lens, exposure unrecorded, Fuji Velvia film, ISO 50

Arizona, USA

QUIVER TREE (Aloe dichotoma)

Canon EOS 1n, 100-400mm lens, exposure unrecorded, Fuji Velvia film, ISO 50

Namibia

So far the plants discussed have been large species that can conserve enough water to survive as permanent structures in the arid regions of the Earth. There are many much smaller and more delicate species that exist on the very edge of survival in these areas, growing, blooming and dying in a short season, sometimes only once every few years. One such plant group is known as the ‘everlastings’ due to its characteristic paper-like flowers, which when dried and used in flower arranging keep their colour and form for a long time.

The plants are most common in the dry, desert-like regions of Western Australia, emerging from the sandy soils in the late winter months. This is not an annual occurrence, however, because the seeds from previous generations only bloom after there have been sufficient winter rains. When this happens, areas of previously featureless scrubby desert are transformed by carpets of flowers that are making the most of the opportunity to reproduce and set seed, before disappearing again prior to the arrival of spring, when the weather warms up and the land dries out completely.

We visited the region after heavy winter rains, and according to the locals the flowers were the best they had seen for at least ten years. The owners of the small roadhouse we stayed in, which was surrounded by flowers, had lived there for four years but had never seen a flower in the area before. Some of the flowers grew in loose groups, but they were most impressive when they formed dense mats that completely covered the ground. I wanted to reflect this density of blooms in a picture. However, because the flowers were quite small this necessitated getting quite close to those that would appear in the foreground. This would restrict the depth of field, but I could not use a small aperture to increase it because there was always a slight wind that was moving the delicate blooms around. The solution was to use a tilt and shift lens to ‘tilt’ the plane of focus across the tops of the flowers instead of in its normal vertical position. This enabled me to use a much wider aperture and in turn a faster shutter speed, preventing the appearance of any wind-blown movement in the flowers in the shot.

I was particularly taken with a little group of white everlastings on their comparatively tall and thin stems, the flowers reaching up towards the blue Australian sky. Although taller than many of the other species in the area, they were still only a few centimetres high and were thus tricky to isolate from their surroundings. To create the picture I had in mind required pretty much the opposite approach to that taken in the picture. That image required a high viewpoint and a long lens to emphasize the sky

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