Last week, I described an oasis of old trees in Shoreline's Boeing Creek Park. I wish the same could be said about Meadowdale Beach Park in Edmonds. Only a scattering of behemoth stumps remain to evoke the forest's bygone grandeur. Still, the park is a lovely place, greeting the senses with a pleasant second-growth forest and the constant music of birdsong. The existing forest consists mostly of red alder and bigleaf maple, with a dense understory of salmonberry and the occasional red elderberry.
And what do you know? The salmonberry bushes were just beginning to bloom when I went there yesterday. What a remarkable bit of "luck!" Unfortunately, the air was a bit gusty, especially closer to the beach, making flower photography quite difficult. I did, however, manage to squeeze out three acceptable shots.
The first one, while not perfect, is the most visually arresting of the bunch. I stopped it down to f/6.3 to get an acceptable level of detail in the foreground flower. I'm not 100% happy with this composition, though, because it's a bit busy. The leaves in the upper left-hand corner (which were the objects closest to the camera) are particularly distracting.
The next shot features the same two flowers from a different angle. I was able to use a wider aperture, f/4.5, and still get a decent amount of sharpness because I wasn't as close. This one, while not as busy as the previous composition, is also not as adventurous. I think one of the reasons for its comparative lack of interest is the point of view - instead of keeping the flowers directly at eye level, as in the previous composition, this looks at them slightly from above, which for flowers is a more conventional and less interesting perspective.
This third one juxtaposes a salmonberry flower against a mossy tree (I think a maple). It turned out alright, but it's not as compelling as it was in my mind's eye. As more salmonberry bushes bloom, though, I'll get other chances to try similar compositions in more favorable settings.
No comments:
Post a Comment