Reflection | TAPC Blog

By Janet Cunningham

After the Sprinkler by Janet Cunningham

After the sprinkler went off one morning, I noticed beautiful water droplets on my neighbor’s Gerber daisies. I wanted an unusual perspective, so I got down even with one of the flowers so I could capture the droplets sitting on top of the petals. Surprise…there was a flower behind the one I was photographing, and it was being reflected in the droplets!

I used a Sigma 105mm macro lens on a Canon 70D. Macro lenses have a shallow depth of field, so I took nine images focusing on nine different droplets, then combined the images in Photoshop.

To shoot these images I used a tripod, a cable release, and manual focus on the lens.

There are many tutorials on how to combine the images using the focus-stacking procedure. I found a Phlearn video helpful: “How To Do Focus Stacking in Photoshop.”

After trying two times and being stymied due to unforeseen circumstances, we finally attended the Chinese Lantern Festival at Fair Park in Dallas on the night before it closed. Thanks to Groupon, five of us made it in for half price. I was surprised by the mass of humanity waiting in line before the opening and also the number of people inside once the exhibit opened.

We arrived at the opening time of 5:00 so I could capture some images before, during and after sunset. The lantern exhibit was not lit up when we arrived so we were able to see the various lanterns before and after. Once the sun went down and the sky took on that dark blue shade, the lanterns were lit. It was quite a sight. There were more cameras per square foot (most smart-phone cameras) than I had seen in some time. There were also a fair number of “more serious” photographers like me that toted around their tripods with their favorite flavor of camera on top. It was really the only way to capture good images once the sky darkened.

From a dragon created from 10,000 dinner plates and eating utensils, to a lantern that looked like the Statue of Liberty to the various ants, pandas, longhorns and other plants and animals I looked for interesting angles and views to shoot. There was ample opportunity to capture reflections in the lagoon, but hard to get shots without people somewhere in the image. I found it to be very creative and interesting and hopefully the photos I included here provide a look inside for those that were not able to attend.