On Saturday following a presentation, "Lessons in the Field" at the monthly meeting of the Coastal Chapter of the GNPA this past Thursday evening , David Foster was kind enough offer some hands on instruction for shooting nature images at Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens. Locals remember these gardens as the Bamboo Ranch where Billy Jo Royal, a Georgia native performed in the 50's and 60's. Although many of the blooming plants in the gardens were gone, some of the fall leaves still clung stubbornly to the branches. In the banana palm grove, the leaves were wilted and browned, but the opportunities for shooting textures was abundant. For about an hour, I felt frustrated as one really had to study the plants to find a creative composition. The sky was overcast most of the morning with peeks of sun shining through-perfect for close-up photography. I gave up on my zoom lens and settled down with the 100mm macro. We were not allowed in the beds so as not to disturb bulbs and other plants that were dormant, but that made it hard to get very close to compose an image. Of the 60 some images, I felt the ones below had some merit. Maybe not wow images, but some beautiful in their state of decay. Thanks again to David Foster and to the group of photographers who sacrificed their Saturday morning sleep-in to shoot some nature images.
I used textures from Rad Lab-Dirty Pictures which made subtle changes mainly to the background of these images. If you are new to textures, there are many free textures available on Flickr as well as tutorials. Flypaper Textures has textures for sale as well as tutorials.
Banana Palm Leaf
A Decaying Banana Tree Leaf on the Ground
Banana Stalk
Orchid
A Pineapple Growing Near the Orchid House
Seed Pods
Pumpkin Abstract
