7/22/2009

Iris Against the Fall

The Azalea garden at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is the oldest part of the grounds. Built in 2001, the plants on the terraced hill are just coming into their own, and were well past bloom when we visited. The water feature however is one the most stunning landscape sculptures I have ever seen.  Water cascades down over a number of ledges and then sheets off a final carefully placed shelf in a rippling curtain of water that is surely designed to catch the light in a million different ways. There is then a short run to a lily pond, surrounded this season with Iris. Beautiful.

I used moderate tel on the zoom to frame this shot from a distance, and Program Shift to select the smallest aperture (greatest depth of field) and a slow shutter speed for the falling water. It was cropped from both the left and right in Lightroom for composition.

Sony DSC H50 at about 120mm equivalent. F8.0 @ 1/50th @ ISO 100. Programed auto with program shift.

Punch and Landscape sharpen presets in Lightroom. Recovery for the highlights. The rock at the bottom right was still too bright, so I used the Local Adjustment Brush to paint a mask and reduce brightness where needed.

The alternative view…

Iris And the Fall

For this, I zoomed in to about 300mm equivalent, and then cropped in Lightroom to come in even tighter, and to place the Iris on the power line (rule of thirds). No Program Shift here. I let the camera set moderate aperture and a faster shutter speed.

F4.0 @ 1/200th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.

Only Punch and Sharpen in Lightroom.

From Coastal Maine Botanical Garden.