Monkey Orchid
On my knees with a Macro lens
I travelled light today because I wanted to cram extra shopping into my back-pack... so chose an old 55mm f/2.8 Macro Nikkor to go with the D200... donned my shorts, applied the tanning oil, and cycled off into the sunshine.
I photographed the Purple Gromwell again and did a much better job with the Macro lens... really concentrating on how much difference in subject sharpness and background blur I was getting by stopping the aperture down from f/8 to f/11 (I cannot remember when I ever used f/16 or f/22 on a lens because of the degradation at those small apertures). I was also more aware today of the stronger breeze and had to wait longer between shots to catch the bobbing flower heads in a still moment. Another lesson I applied was to take a number shots from further away from the plants to help establish them in their environment rather than them being framed anonymously... it would help naturalists to see what weeds and grasses were growing near a specimen plant to establish it's habitat accurately.
Then I noticed a drift of different orchids to the Early Purple Orchids I photographed yesterday, also on a roadside verge making access easy. When I'm photographing wild flowers at the roadside I always stand up when a car approaches (which isn't often in these quiet parts), because a) with my bike laid on the grass, the contents of my backpack strewn about if I've been removing shopping to hurriedly retrieve a hidden lens, and me bent double, it may look as if an accident has occurred... and b) I show that I have a camera and that I'm taking photographs and not picking flowers.
 Today, as I did just that, a passing van slowed, then reversed, and the driver got out. I recognised him as being local, and after we shook hands I played-back on the Nikon D200 the shots I had taken. He said that I'd been photographing the Monkey Orchid Orchis simia and that he had many examples of the Military Orchid Orchis militaris around his house further up the hill. I shall pay him a visit soon... he invited me there and then but I had to be on my way with lunch looming.
Incidentally, I'm almost certain the passing motorist used the Latin names (although they were very similar to the French names) to identify the orchids... which is, of course, the correct way when discussing flora and fauna in foreign tongues. And whilst it is always easier to learn from an expert on the spot, I don't often have that privilege... so when I return home I often have difficulty identifying the differences between many closely related plants. I might have remained baffled by some of the flowers I've seen this week, but I've found Paul Nielsen's page on British Orchids a very useful introduction because it shows several in comparison photos as well as their rarity and habitat.
Oh yes... and I realised today that despite all the advances in lens technology over the past twenty years, the old 55mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor takes some beating when it comes to results.
10:44:16 PM 
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