Revealing the natural beauty of wildflowers depends on achieving full color saturation

For most of the past 10 years, Canadian photographer Ethan Meleg has lived in Tobermory, near the tip of the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario (about 4 hours northwest of Toronto). The peninsula separates Lake Huron on its western side and Georgian Bay on the east. "Renown for its shoreline scenery and natural diversity," says Ethan, "it’s been a dream location for this nature photographer to call home.

"Among the area's natural attributes is a wide diversity of plants including 42 species of orchids, 50 ferns and a handful of plant species that are endemic to the region. There are various species of wildflowers blooming in this area from April through October. My favorite time is from late May through mid-June.

"It was inevitable I would end up learning to photograph wildflowers! And one of the most important lessons in that process was discovering the importance of achieving optimum color saturation. The flower above is a white variant of the Calypso orchid taken with a 100mm f2.8 macro lens on which I mounted my Singh-Ray LB Warming Polarizer. The excellent color saturation achieved in this image and the three other images that follow is largely due to using the LB Warming Polarizer for every exposure.

"Whether your images are digital or film, color saturation can make or break their visual impact. This trio of Yellow Lady's Slippers was taken with a Canon EOS 1N film camera, an EF70-200mm L IS lens with the same LB Warming Polarizer. I find shooting with film is much more stressful. Without the histogram, it's difficult to get the exposure correct -- especially with bright wildflowers against a dark background. I got this image by bracketing extensively. Here again the color saturation was excellent, thanks to the polarizer.

"When shooting wildflowers, there are a number of technical challenges to be met. Wind and light are the two most obvious factors to contend with. Delicate wildflowers will sway with only the slightest breeze, so I typically shoot early in the morning -- from sunrise to approximately 1 hour later -- before the wind begins to build. The lighting I prefer for wildflower photography is either the warm, soft light occurring at sunrise or sunset, the shadowless light on an overcast day or in 'open shade.' To supplement and control any of these natural lighting conditions, I also carry a diffuser disk to soften direct light as well as reflectors to fill in the shadows.

"As if windy and low-light conditions weren’t enough to threaten the sharpness of my wildflower images, there's quite often the issue of depth of field. To get a flower head in focus with a typical macro lens or one of my telephoto lenses with extension tubes, I try to work with a very small aperture. For this image of Showy Lady's Slippers, I chose an exposure of 1/5 second at f/20. I always use a sturdy tripod, ball head, cable release and mirror lock-up to achieve minimum camera motion and maximum sharpness. When it comes to stopping wind-blown wildflowers, the greatly improved image quality of the newest digital bodies -- even at higher ISO settings -- is a huge benefit. I regularly shoot at ISO 400 and will go much higher when I need to.

"But I want to wrap up all this tech talk by repeating my main point: I rely on my LB Warming Polarizer to assure the best wildflower image quality possible. This image of the Striped Coralroot, which was taken with the help of two off-camera flash units, represents another way I benefit by using my polarizer to reduce glare and improve color saturation. For me the LB Warming Polarizer is essential for shooting wildflowers. What's more, the filter's improved light transmission allows me to use a somewhat faster shutter speed than a conventional polarizer.

"To become a proficient wildflower photographer, it's important to learn as much as possible about their biology and habitat preferences. The more we know about a species, the easier it becomes to find them in bloom."

Due to an unusually warm spring in Ontario this year, Ethan is expecting a bumper crop of wildflowers in time for his June photo workshop. For details on participating, visit his website. And be sure to check out his blog, too.

Another photographer discovers many of his best landscapes are just around the corner

Living just north of Seattle in Anacortes, Washington, Steven Koch is surrounded by mountains, sea and islands. "Living here allows me great opportunities to pursue a wide variety of photographic opportunities," says Steven. "And that's what I do... all different types of photography. The camera I use for landscapes and aerials is a Canon 5D (first generation) with a Canon 16–35mm L series lens. I am an FAA-licensed pilot which enables me to fly to amazing locations and see the world from a bird's eye view. Photography has always been a bit of a challenge for me, but I have found that having the right tools -- including Singh-Ray filters -- and just sticking with the basics enables me to achieve consistent results. As an aspiring landscape photographer, I'm continuously working to find what's right for me and trying to develop my own style.

"The photo above was taken at Washington Park in Anacortes. The park is very easy to get to from my home and on this warm, partly cloudy summer evening there was a older lady standing out on the dock watching the sunset. I was very excited and hurried to set up my tripod for the shot. I used a Singh-Ray 3-stop Reverse ND Grad with a 1/8-second exposure. In instances like this, we have only a few seconds to think before the shot disappears. There was no real pre-visualizing of this photo, it’s a matter of being there at the right time and place. The sunset and the emotion of the person looking out to the sea was promptly captured. There is no way I would have been able to pull this shot off in post production. It’s a single shot, but it clearly reveals why I like using Singh-Ray filters to help me balance the exposure just they way I want it and get the image right in the camera the first time with little or no post production.

As a recently licensed pilot, I will soon have more and more opportunities to photograph other places in the world. This rocky seacoast is located in South Africa only an hour north of Johannesburg. I had been trying for three days to get this shot, getting up each morning an hour before sunrise and then watching the early dawn light quickly brighten into full daylight. The problem I was having was trying to get the South African driver to get me to the location on time. For three days he was late and I arrived just after the five minutes of magic light disappeared. So my client's assistant offered to deliver me to the location on time. On this fourth day, the magic light only lasted long enough to capture this image. This vantage point was chosen to capture the sidelighting on the rocks in the foreground and add depth to the image. I used my Singh-Ray LB ColorCombo along with a Singh-Ray 3-stop Reverse ND Grad and a 3-stop, soft-step ND grad which resulted in a 15-second exposure. This image was originally in color, and even though there are some images I would not dare convert to black and white, this one seemed to look better as a monochrome.

Here's another image captured at Washington Park. As a pilot, I am always watching the weather so I can usually tell when it's going to be good day to shoot at sunset. I prefer shooting sunsets when the sky is partly cloudy because it adds depth to the image. When composing this shot, I wanted the rocks in the foreground to come right up to the camera. I also wanted the moodiness of the sun setting into a very soft sea. I used my LB ColorCombo along with a 3-stop soft-step ND Grad which resulted in a 15-second exposure. Whenever I am photographing a location like this, I try to expose shots from different angles within the same vicinity. I usually place the camera very low and shoot straight on, then again from the left and right sides.

For this image taken at Larrabee State Park in Washington, I used the ColorCombo with a 3-stop Reverse ND Grad, with my camera on a tripod. My camera was facing north and the sun was setting to the west. I wanted side lighting to add to the contrast and to increase the effect of the ColorCombo's built-in polarizer on the blue patch of sky. Unlike other types of photography I do, most of my landscape images are natural looking -- not at all contrived or created in the computer. There is no way I could ever pull these images off without the help of Singh-Ray filters."

Steven's plans for the future include flying to all corners of the world to capture memorable landscape images as well as portraits, commercial work, and more. At the same time, however, he'll also be pursuing the many opportunities right around the corner. To follow his various ventures and projects, you're invited to visit his new website here.