Spring is practically here! It's so exciting given this winter that we've been having with record amounts of snowfall. Because it's Friday and time for our featured "Photo of the Week," we've chosen a photograph of something which you might start seeing outside right about now. We've got a spring crocus Flower photograph for you today.
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This gorgeous flower is rather short-lived once it comes up in the garden. When it does open, it's time to move and get pictures taken before it warms up too much and the flowers shrivel away for the year. I made sure that I moved quickly once I noticed them out for the season.
It was a cold and windy day that day. Early spring in March is often this kind of miserable. Why these flowers love this weather is beyond me but it's when they come out so it's also when I emerge with my camera. I also must bundle up against the wind when I do so since these photo sessions can take several minutes to an hour or more just to get a single shot like this.
Predictably, the wind was not my friend. Any and all flowers I went to point my camera at were driven back and forth just as soon as I looked their way. It's like the wind didn't want me to be out there taking pictures. It was an exercise in patience and timing to catch those still moments between gusts when the flowers would be clear and sharp.
I also had to worry about the early season mud. There's lots of it and it will get everywhere if you let it. It's also difficult to not get some of it in the frame of the camera from time to time. Spring flower photos are about life returning. Brown dead mud isn't a part of that formula at all. I had to get creative with my angles. There were only a few to be had without the ever present mud.
Thanks to how short these flowers are, I had to use my tripod and cable release if I wanted a prayer at getting in close like this. Hand-holding was just not a good option.
With the tripod, I could Focus on the center parts of the flower and keep the focus there while taking several shots. I didn't have to worry about accidentally changing the focus by moving just slightly. Macro shots like this have such a thin plane of focus that any movement at all disrupts the focus of the overall image. I was glad for that stability when I took a look at this final image.
This beautiful Crocus Flower Photograph is a member of my award-winning collection.
