"X Shot" information.
Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II
ISO - 200
Shutter - 1/250 sec.
F/stop - 11
Lens - 24/70 zoom
LOCATION.
1. Crested butte is about 5 hour drive from Denver.
2. Wildflowers should still be great.
3. Areas to check out are Lake Irwin, Slate River Road, Washington Gulch, Gothic Road and Brush
Creek Road.
4. A great place to stay is the Old Town Inn.
CHALLENGE.
I checked Crested Butte's weather report for my up coming trip. Every afternoon had a good chance of thunderstorms, just the way I like it, some clouds always add to the photo. When I shoot flowers, I try not to have the images all look the same, there are ways that will prevent this from happening.
SOLUTION.
1. Try to use every lens you have, I went from a 24 mm lens to a 500 mm, on this shoot.
2. Use each lens with minimum and maximum depth-of-field.
3. Shoot flowers back-lit, make shore you have a hat or something to block the sun.
4. When shooting with a macro-lens on a windy, use a real slow shutter speed, letting the flowers be
blown around, during the exposure.
5. Go out in all weather and times of day. I went out in the rain and got a nice shot, just dress for it.
6. Use your strobe! One early morning shoot, the background was nicely lit (mountains, clouds) but
the foreground (flowers) were in a deep shadow from a mountain. I used a off camera strop to light
the flowers.
7. Use both low and high angles.
8. When shooting, don't get tunnel vision and only look for flowers. Keep you eyes open for anything
that makes a photo and make sure you stop and shoot it. Don't go " hey look at that and than pass it
up"
9. The wildflowers are still good, if your planning on a shoot, this is a good time!
Ken Papaleo
Colorado Nature Photographer
303-674-0615
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