Variations on a Theme: Mid-May Blooms /  by Todd Henson

Variations on a Theme: Mid-May Blooms

For this look at variations on a theme we explore different ways of finishing exactly the same photograph. This was prompted by a comment from Lashaan of Bookidote on the post, A Flowering Shrub One May Morning, where he wondered how the photos might look in a black and white rendition. So I decided to experiment with one of the photos and see what I could do with it.

Color Version

Mid-May Blooms: Color Version

We begin with the color version. I’ve always been more of a color photographer, I see in color, I’m drawn to color. So most of my photography is processed as color. In this case I love the green background, how the white flowers stand out against it, and the subtle pinks and yellows in some of the flowers. I’m very happy with this photograph.

Low Key Black & White Version

Mid-May Blooms: Low Key Black & White Version

My first thought when interpreting this photo in black and white was to create a low-key image with a dark background and beautiful white flowers. Something bold and dynamic. Something that helped the flowers jump off the screen. It creates a particular feeling from the photograph, and I found I liked this version, as well.

High Key Black & White Version

Mid-May Blooms: High Key Black & White Version

What naturally followed my thoughts of creating a low-key image? Well, of course, creating a high-key image, one much lighter and perhaps a bit more ethereal and soft. Yes, the flowers are white, but that doesn’t mean we can’t create a very soft light grey for the background. The flowers still stand out, but it creates a much different feeling from the photograph. I find I also like this version.

Mid-Tones Black & White Version

Mid-May Blooms: Mid-Tones Black & White Version

Finally, I ended up creating an image that was somewhere between the two previous versions, creating something that perhaps feels closer to reality. This version relies on a nice range of mid-tones, nothing too dark or too light, creating a more balanced image. As you might have guessed, I like this version, too.

Thoughts

There are an almost unlimited number of ways to process any photograph. Even if your goal is to recreate reality as closely as possible there’s still so many choices to make, and very few of us can perfectly remember exactly how a scene looked, so our attempts to recreate it might naturally vary.

Another option is to ignore reality and instead process the image based on your emotions, how you felt about the scene instead of how the scene looked. This can lead to photos that still look real but might not perfectly match the actual scene that day. Or it can lead to images that look very different from that day.

When you decide to process a photograph in black and white it opens an entirely new treasure box full of possibilities. Most of us don’t see in black and white, so any image we create in black and white will be very interpretive. As with color, you can create something that we’ll feel looks real, or you can create something very different from the color source.

When shooting in raw mode our cameras capture all the color information and save it in the image file. We can choose to interpret the photo in black and white by shifting each of the colors to some shade of grey. And as the different versions above show, your choices can create vastly different final images.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this short look at four different versions of the same image. There are countless other ways this image could have been interpreted, and that’s both some of the fun and frustration of post-processing. We have to choose.

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Hummingbird Clearwing Moth /  by Todd Henson

A hummingbird clearwing moth (Hemaris thysbe) hovering by a flower

I still remember the first time I saw a hummingbird moth and learned it was an insect and not a bird. Similar to how a hummingbird has a small body for a bird, a hummingbird moth has a large body for a moth. And so the two end up very similar in size, flying in somewhat similar ways, both making similar sounds, and feeding around similar plants. It’s no wonder then, is it, that we mistake them? And yet, they are so very different.

The hummingbird moth we’re looking at today is called a hummingbird clearwing (Hemaris thysbe). It’s not the only clearwing in this area and looks very similar to the Snowberry clearwing (Hemaris diffinis). But the hummingbird clearwing has more red on its wings and lower body, and its legs are pale colored. The Snowberry clearwing has black legs, and also a dark band around its eyes and across its sides. They both can have a greenish toned thorax and a darker abdomen which almost appear to be covered in fur, contributing to their resemblance to hummingbirds.

A hummingbird clearwing moth (Hemaris thysbe) gathering nectar from flowers

These moths are wonderful flyers and a joy to watch as they flit from flower to flower feeding on the nectar. They have an extraordinarily long tongue that lets them feed from flowers some insects are unable to. But the flowers in these photos, which I believe are beebalm, don’t present much challenge to hummingbird moths or other insects.

Trying to photograph hummingbird moths can be a real challenge as they’re fast movers, and their wings are almost never still. I do wonder what they’d look like if they ever landed to rest, but I’ve only ever seen them in flight. I was fortunate to capture a couple nice views, showing details on their back, sides and wings. Look closely and you can see the clear portions of their wings that explain the clearwing part of their name. You can also see the long tongue extended into the flower.

Have you ever encountered hummingbird moths? Are they common in your area?

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Cardinals Nesting in the Blueberries /  by Todd Henson

Male northern cardinal and blueberries

My folks have several blueberry bushes that some years provide great tasting blueberries and other years are almost completely eaten by wildlife before they’re fully ripe. The best blueberry years are those when there’s netting over the bushes, but sometimes there’s just not enough time to deal with new netting. This year we were trying to put up some make-shift netting, hoping to get some berries, when my father discovered a nest in one of the bushes, which turned out to be the nest of a pair of northern cardinals. And it contained at least three small blue eggs with brown spots, so it was an active nest. Pretty exciting, but also a little disappointing, as we wouldn’t be able to put up netting on that particular bush.

Northern cardinal eggs in a nest

While working around the bushes I took the opportunity to briefly photograph the nest and the eggs, as I’d never seen an active cardinal nest before. But I tried, as much as possible, to stay away from the nest, both so I didn’t disturb it and so I didn’t attract attention to it.

Female northern cardinal reaching for blueberries

Later, after we were finished with the netting, I setup at a distance and photographed some of the activity in the blueberry bushes. Many of the local birds are somewhat used to the presence of people, which makes photographing them much easier. And most years my folks have bird feeders, though this year they don’t as local authorities have recommended taking down all bird feeders because of a bird illness sweeping through the region that they think might be spread faster when birds congregate at feeders. Thankfully, I didn’t see evidence of this illness with these birds.

The female northern cardinal flying between branches

Mmmm, mmmm good! The female northern cardinal feasting on a blueberry

But being used to people, and having such a great food source as a blueberry bush with ripening berries, it was fairly easy to get some interesting photographs of the pair of cardinals. I setup at a bit of a distance from the bushes, right between some raised garden beds where my folks grow vegetables. I watched as the male cardinal sometimes turned to look at me as he heard the camera’s shutter click. And I watched as the female pulled down and ate several blueberries.

Though somewhat exposed up top, from the side the female northern cardinal is difficult to see in her nest

If you’re curious how to tell the male and female apart, look closely at the coloration. The male is a brighter red, whereas the female has some reddish tones to her feathers but is otherwise a duller color, more tan or brown. The dark feathers around the beak of the male are black, but on the female they are closer to gray.

Are you still there? One final look at the male northern cardinal peeking around some branches at me

We were hopeful this might turn into a productive nest but also concerned the cardinals had chosen a poor location. The nest was somewhat exposed up top. And the blueberry bushes, though containing plenty of food for the cardinals, also attracted many other birds and critters. I don’t know that building a nest right in the middle of a local food source for other animals was a good idea. Unfortunately, this did prove true, as several days later my father found the nest empty. I’m hopeful this was early enough in the season that the pair of cardinals found a better location to try again and that perhaps this story, even with the initial losses, had a happy ending.

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