Flora (Plants):
This gallery has a selection of plant photos encompassing everything from leaves, logs, branches, trees, fungi (I know fungi are scientifically their own kingdom but this seems the logical place for them) and anything else from the plant kingdom that I have had the pleasure to photograph. As with my flower and animal photos I go out hiking, usually with my wife Shiloh and our two daughters, and photograph them and the world around us.
I love the texture and color of plants, and the myriad forms they take.
Some of my favorite shots involve plants covered in dew and in getting to experience that wonderful magnifying effect of the water droplets on the plant.
I also really like plants that have died back, it's as if we are seeing the plants skelton. One such image in this gallery, and a personal favorite, is a triptych of a succulent showing the flowering plant from budding, to bloom, to die back. Such an awesome metaphor of life.
Many of my photographs are macro, taken with my faithful D300 (I love my D300) usually with the Nikkor 55mm 2.8 manual focus macro lens (love that lens) and then often with a series of extender tubes.
All of my shots are handheld (it's near impossible to shoot live wild subjects with a tripod), and I will often, very happily, get down in the mud to get the shot. There is also something very satisfying about handheld macro photography as it takes lots of patience, lots and lots of photos, and often the results are not clear until I load the photos up on my iMac and have the experience of seeing the secrets of the image revealed before me.
I hope you enjoy viewing my plant and fungi ;) photos as much as I have enjoyed taking them.
Arnie :-)
