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Indian Warriors, Pinnacles National Mounument

Posted by
Don Smith (California, United States) on 13 March 2011 in Landscape & Rural.

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Juxtapositions are always foremost on my mind when two seasons collide. Early spring blooms were placed on hold when a late February snow storm dusted the Pinnacles National Monument located in California's southern San Benito County. Indian Warriors (Pedicularis Densiflorus) are amongst the first of 80 wildflowers to make an appearance at the Park. When I found this bloom amongst a patch of fresh snow it was time to lay down (think get wet) and get to work with my Canon 24 mm tilt/shift.

My goal was to get as many of the bright red flowers into the frame as possible (which I succeeded in doing) but then a slight breeze kicked up (a limiting factor) and my 1 second shutter at f/16 was going to result in blurred flowers. Thanks to the tilt function of the lens, I was able to shift my thinking to limit the focus onto just one flower and in the process I was able to choose f/5.6 that gained me back 3 stops of light resulting in a 1/8th shutter. I then decided to double my ISO from 100 to 200, which allowed me to add another stop to my shutter resulting in 1/15th. A bit of patience, timing a lull in the breeze, allowed me to capture a sharp frame. The soft indirect open-shade light evened the tonality of the frame and allowed me to control the brightness of the snow in relation to flowers.

Limiting Factors as I like to call them rear their ugly heads all the time during location shoots. We can either let them frustrate us or we can take a positive outlook and try to think our way through the problem (something experience will teach you to do). The first item when approaching a scene is to identify the limiting factor(s). It/they can be anything from wind, to tricky light and everything in between.

Don't get frustrated. Be realistic and try to think your way through the problem. Had I needed an even faster shutter I could have gained another stop by changing my ISO to 400 (still resulting in a clean frame with my Canon 1Ds camera), and/or I could have removed my polarizer and gained another stop (fortunately I didn't need to).

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III 1/15 second F/5.6 ISO 200 24 mm

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