If there’s one thing you can count on for Weekly Fifty, it’s that pretty much every year, at some point, you’ll come across a picture that looks something like this. It’s my sort-of annual (I mean, I don’t specifically go out of my way to do this each year but, as Calvin said, these things just seem to happen) image of an Indian Paintbrush flower–which is the colloquial name for these here in Oklahoma though, as the title suggests, they are members of the Figwort family and carry several other names as well. It might seem somewhat self-indulgent to post a picture like this each year (and again, it’s not like I do this on purpose) but at the end of the day…I just like these flowers. Are they invasive? I guess. Are they a nuisance? Depends on who you ask. Are they pretty, especially if you can capture them at dawn or dusk? Most definitely. And, as far as criteria that matters most for this particular context…are they fun to photograph? As they say up north, yah you betcha.
I remember years ago taking shots of these flowers with my little ol’ 50mm f/1.8 lens on a crop sensor D7100 or D200, and being struck at how brilliant they looked especially in the right light. The one featured today is no exception, and while I now usually use a macro lens on a full-frame camera, the basic idea is kind of the same: center the subject in the frame, and use background elements such as grass, trees, and sky for color, contrast, and of course, context. I took this in my neighbor’s field one evening as the sun was settting, and while it’s not going to win any awards for creativity, it’s one of those images that I just…enjoy. Top to bottom, start to finish, this was a fun photo to take and a nice one to look at. All the elements are there: rich reds, deep greens, dark trees in the background, bright spots of sky sneaking through near the top, and a nice level of detail too thanks to the f/13 aperture and decent distance between lens and subject. There’s even a bit of foreground action too, with a single blade of grass slicing diagonally across the shot. If you look closely you can see other interesting bits and bobs too, like another flower on the right and something shiny in the top-left (honestly not sure with that one. Perhaps just a gap in the trees?) or you can just…not look closely at all and enjoy the picture for what it is.
Most of the time I find myself using Weekly Fifty to stretch, learn, and grow as a photographer–something I talk about quite often, in fact. But there are also times when it’s really more of a pleasant, gentle nudge to myself–a reminder to take that camera down from the shelf, go outside, and see what wonders I might find. And sometimes the simplicity of those scenarios, and the mere act of taking the photo, are some of the best reasons to be a photographer.
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