Daily Image - January 2020 Archive

06 Jan 20 Today we'll take a look at what might make a good puzzle with perhaps 10,000 pieces; most ALL of them moving. Well, perhaps not the actual pieces moving but the subjects thereon. Imagine having a flock of between 10 and 50 thousand birds frequenting your property for the better part of 5 months per year. One thing for certain is that you wouldn't have to worry yourself about fertilizing the land. Even better, you would likely get a great show put on for you daily as predators disturbed the flock causing them to simultaneously take to flight and zigzagging back and forth in front of you. It's a show that's hard to describe, let alone appreciate, until you've seen it in person. Since we've yet to make the trip this year thought I'd grab a shot from an earlier time when the flock numbered around 20,000 birds. If you have some time on your hands and need something to pass the time, have a go at counting the birds. Other than a little cropping off the top of just boring sky and a small amount of dodging and burning, this is straight from the camera. As a Puzzle Candidate Nikon D300; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1250 sec @ f / 7.1.

07 Jan 20 This is a shot taken back in 2011 from an area that was a large wetland before being converted into prime farm land. As you will no doubt anticipate the state managed to force the farmers off the land to convert it back to a wetland. I visited the area just twice, the first time before the restoration when it was full of life, and afterward when we saw virtually nothing more than these two ducks and one heron. Both visits under virtually identical conditions as to weather, time of day, and month of year. So the restoration was obviously a phenomenal success. I've visited two more such areas where I used to get hundreds of images of wildlife on every visit and now see next to nothing. But don't expect to read such in any of the descriptions of these areas, just glowing reports of how wonderful it has been to "restore" the areas to their "natural" state. Makes me think the Gipper had it absolutely right. Other than a small amount of cropping and the cloning out of a vehicle, this is what the camera saw. Out for a Morning Swim Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/400 sec @ f /11.

09 Jan 20 It's Theatrical Thursday and were going with something different. Up in the little town of Rockport, where we go to supposedly look for Bald Eagles when we could simply drive a few miles from here to see all we want, there is an area used for boating down the Skagit scouting for the birds. The entry is about 2 miles up the road and Rockport is the exit site. There is a nice little park there, a very nice camping area, and some other facilities including a Bald Eagle Learning Center and a small bar/store for necessities. Where the park area joins the road there is a small stream that, depending on the time of the year, can be just a trickle or a gushing river of water. Generally it is running rather full when we visit and I frequently like to get down to its level and take some shots. Only seen one other person crazy or desperate enough to do it so it is likely that most folks have never seen it although they drive over it either on their way in or out or both when they visit the park. This is a shot of it just as it exits a steel tube that carries it under the road. After traveling perhaps another 50 yards it joins the Skagit River on its way to Puget Sound, then the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and finally the Pacific Ocean. I took the original image and applied a small amount of dodging and burning plus a wee bit of contrast enhancement. Then I copied the image onto itself, flipped it horizontally, doubled the width of the canvas and moved the flipped copy to the left edge of the canvas aligning the mirrored sides exactly. That gives us the stereo view albeit not how we normally see in stereo. Of course this is what makes it creative. Confused Stereovision Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f / 9 with full flash.

08 Jan 20 Just back from the first session of a 6 month course on how to build a static webpage. IF, and it is a BIG IF, all goes well, I may be switching my image storage from Smugmug to my own site. Just curious, and way ahead of need, but would any of you be willing to beta test the site as it is developed? Always good to have user input. Now back to our regular programming. Today we are looking at a small roadside lake, the same one Maggie tried to walk across several years ago and failed having forgotten to put on her water-walkers, located a few miles distant from Mt Baker which sits 14 miles south of the Washington - British Columbia border. The most northern of the four large peaks in the Cascade Range in WA, its summit sits at 10,781 feet but its annual snowfall belies that low summit. For the past couple of decades it has averaged around 700" but in the '98-'99 winter it set a world's record 1,140 inches. Close to that was the '70 - '71 season at 1,063 inches. The amount tends to fluctuate from year to year but has been on a general upward trend during the last decade although 2015 was, I believe, an all time low at 303 inches. Over this past weekend it got 50 inches of snow. I've yet to hear any reasonable explanation for the huge amount of snow it gets. This little unnamed lake I'm sharing sits right at road edge and was taken that year of minimal snowfall. Interestingly, when we have visited during years of heavy snowfall, this little body of water has had minimal snow on it. This particular visit was the best we've had there. I've cropped off a tiny section at the top, cloned out a couple annoying twigs, and done a small amount of dodging and burning, otherwise, this is what the camera captured. Snow and Ice D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f /10.

13 Jan 20 As I write this we are getting our first snowfall of the year; just like when I was a kid. The forecast was for snow showers from tonight through Thursday but with little to no accumulation. At 3.5"+ and falling fast I'm imagining we'll awake to some beautiful scenery. Unfortunately I won't be able to shoot it as I have a prior commitment an hour away in the early morning. Oh well, there's certain to be more. Or so I hope! Now most of you know Magellan misnamed our local ocean calling it the Pacific when for the most part it is anything but. However, there are days when it truly lives up to that moniker, and those days are the ones when you don't want it to, but as we have no control over it you take what you get. (Hopefully Iceland weather will cooperate and we'll get the Aurora Borealis in full display!) On this particular January day, when it should have been putting on magnificent display of its power the Pacific was providing us with a bit of fog to keep things somewhat interesting and very gentle wave action. It isn't always that you see the local fishermen standing up in their boats while tending their nets. Weather aside we had a very nice day trip and I got a few acceptable images. Other than a little contrast enhancement, and a wee bit of straightening, this is straight from the camera. The Peaceful Pacific Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f / 8.

30 Jan 20 There was nothing sent for Wednesday as I was involved with a congregant that took almost 8 hours of time and left me somewhat mentally exhausted by the time it was over. So if you were wondering if I sent something that didn't make it to your mailbox I didn't. Now for the next to the last image before departing. It being Theatrical Thursday I'm going with something a bit fanciful. Both in late fall and often throughout January we see an abundance of spider webs. Under the right conditions, namely when they are dew laden, they make for interesting subjects. This was a web sans occupant but one that was nearly perfect so it lent itself to being manipulated and of the several versions I made this is my favorite. The applied filter is called oil spill but for me it more often renders the subject looking more like it is under black light than having been drenched in oil. I think this is one of those that will either strike your fancy or be a total bust. This is straight from the camera save for the obvious manipulation. Under Black Light Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f /6.3 with full flash compensation.

15 Jan 20 I had something special planned for today but an unfortunate situation arose that resulted in a change of plans. Today's missive is one of those you never want to write but do because it is the right thing to do. It was with delight that I was speaking with our pastor who along with his bride was returning to our parish this morning after an unplanned period of medical leave only to learn that their beloved Goldendoodle Ringo, who had a history of seizures had begun a non-stop string of them last night continuing into this morning, would have to be put down. Never an easy thing and as he was our friend also all the harder to write about it. Ringo was a rescue who came to them with medical problems and they gave him the best care anybody could do. The got him shortly after having to put down their previous dog, Spooner, a wonderful Golden Retriever. You can imagine having to say goodby to two very good friends in roughly a 3 year period is a very difficult thing!! As you may or may not have heard me say before, my opinion is that dogs are angels sent to take care of us and certainly Spooner and Ringo fit the description to a "T." So today Ringo went to be with Spooner and all the other dogs who have spent their lives with us, probably one of yours as well. This one is for you, Ringo!! I've cropped the original and added an angel, otherwise this is straight from the camera. Thanks for Taking Such Good Care of Me--I Love You Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 320; 1/160 sec @ f / 8.

22 Jan 20 Living as we do we are basically surrounded by water. We are pretty much near the top end of a peninsula and should you place your boat in the water, round the top of this peninsula and just drive west, it wouldn't be too long before you found yourself in the Pacific Ocean. From there the world would be your oyster assuming you stayed relatively close to shore. As such, we can find something of an aquatic nature to photograph with little difficulty and in fact can do so walking a third mile to a friend's home or 1.5 miles to the beach on the west side of Puget Sound. So on any given day there is a good chance that I will find something to photograph with water as a major component and likely mountains as well. One of the things Jan likes to do after church is get in the SUV and just go driving around some section of water. This is a shot we took one afternoon post church while driving the loop road around the southern end of Hood Canal. It was late afternoon on the last day of 2018 and the water being much warmer than the air the mist rising off the water was making for a somewhat romantic shot. So I took it. This is basically what the camera saw save for a little cropping and conversion to B & W. Somewhat Ansel-Like Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 160; 1/2500 sec @ f / 9.

28 Jan 20 We've been thinking about making a jaunt to Hurricane ridge these last two days but each morning as we pass by the viewpoint for seeing the Olympics locally what looks promising early on soon fades away to everything shrouded in clouds. So that will have to wait until I return. To get there and back we have to cross over Hood Canal via the floating bridge that connects our peninsula with the Olympic peninsula which is actually a large section of the state but which has water on three sides. By specific definition of a peninsula it is but being larger than several New England states it is hard to conceive of it as such. Hood Canal is the body of water that separates the two peninsulas and prior to the construction of that bridge one had to travel the length of Puget Sound to do what now is accomplished by crossing over that bridge, about a three hour savings of time. Last year's snowfalls provided some opportunity for a few nice photo shoots and on one such shoot the snow and ice on the smaller growing plants on the western approach of the bridge was melting which, when combined with the right angle of light, made for some nice photo opportunities. This shot is one taken in the late afternoon light as the temps were dropping and the moisture starting to get solid for another day. This is straight from the camera save for a small amount of dodging and burning and of course conversion to black and white. Sixties Black & White Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f / 9.

02 Jan 20 Happy New Year! As in the past, a little review of what I'll be doing this year. I don't plan for much change; narrative first and then the technical stuff last. Like last year, unless I mention otherwise, the camera body will be the D500 and the lens the 18 - 200. If something else, I'll mention what was used. I'll be gone the first 3 weeks in February to Iceland, no mailings during that time. I'll also be gone the first two weeks of May to the condo. Other than that I plan on dong the mailings for the rest of the year. So 47 weeks of mailings for 2020 which should be 1 more than I did in 2019. You may want to keep this mailing for reference when you think something is wrong when there is an extended period without the Daily Image mailings. One change may occur after getting back from Iceland. I'll be taking the D800 as a backup body and for use in extreme wide angle shots. Might decide afterwards to make it the default body; if so, I'll let you know. We pick back up with another shot of the Olympics from just down the road. We had a pretty big wind storm last night that canceled the fireworks from the Space Needle - first time since 1999 as winds were to exceed 30mph - and carpeted our local area with plenty of debris consisting of mostly tree parts. In addition it appeared to have dropped a fair amount of fresh snow on the mountains! This is a shot of how it affected the Olympics with lots of ground fog and overhead clouds to provide accent. While many of the recent implants to the area are bemoaning the harvesting of the local trees on the Pope & Talbot tree farms, I love the views that are now provided as a result. Next harvest in about 30 years I won't be around to appreciate but for now I'm really enjoying the new view. Other than cloning out a couple of little branches that were distracting this is what the camera captured. With a Fresh Coat of Snow Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 100; 1/250 sec @ f / 9.

03 Jan 20 Our local small hardware store, the kind where you can still buy individual nuts and bolts and virtually everything else a home owner might need, those things not being blister packed and in quantities you don't need, puts on an annual Christmas feed and 15% off sale on the first Friday of December. It's always fun to participate and they even have a drawing for small prizes that everyone is encouraged to enter. Our first two years participating we won a prize which led us to think perhaps everyone was a winner and got a trophy just as in today's youth sports, but as we didn't win this year I guess such is not the case. While standing around while Jan was chatting with a couple of folks I noticed a small little toy that was a holder for a couple "D" cells to turn a rotating and spinning head of tubes that light up in the primary colors. It rotated in two axes and eventually stabilized much like an egg when you spin it, assuming of course the egg is hard boiled. As I watched for several minutes while different individuals played with it I decided it might make for an interesting photo and bought one. Today I'm sharing a shot of it in action. Now, some of you will recall that I went to Berkeley last June to take a class on photographing flowers costing $800 for two days and learned nothing new. I shared one shot from that class upon our return, a floral arrangement on a white background. Today's image is made in a similar fashion but employing an entirely different technique. It won't take two days to explain and I'll not charge you $800 to learn it. I'll explain it all in the technical paragraph that follows for those of you who are interested. In short the image is composed of 20 layered frames. 19 are shots of just the light portion, with one more of the entire object. Plus there is a small inset in the LRH corner to show the toy. To make this image I first took a photo of the toy turned off. It looks similar to the inset at the bottom right that shows it standing by itself. The four little arms rotate like the hands of a clock and the ball head spins like the earth. Once turned on it rotates in both axes until it is in a stable state. The tubes that are visible at the top of the image light up in many colors like Joseph's coat. Once the spinning stabilized, I shot it many times to get different pieces lit as the lights are really flashing on and off all the time. It took 19 shots for me to feel comfortable that I had all the colors and the sphere solid. I then layered all 20 and using the difference blend mode with a mask on each layer - the preceding is the trick to doing this - on which I painted in just what I wanted. Finally I added the little insert so you could visualize the toy. That's it. Now you can do it without spending two days and lots of $$$$$$. By the way, I've not seen this described in any book, yet. . . . Look into the Light Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f / 6.3 (flash used for the inset).

10 Jan 20 At Monday evening's camera club meeting there was a discussion about what the theme should be for the next meeting. After some discussion going nowhere I suggested we go with a macro theme. That elicited several responses with a preponderance being along the line of how would we do close-up/macro. Needless to say that made me chuckle some and so I made a "few" suggestions. In the end macro was chosen for our next meeting. Debating now as to whether I should just submit a couple of images or bring along a bag of equipment to demonstrate the many ways one can do it. As a minimum I know for sure I'll bring along a 5x macro that is really fun - and challenging - to work with due to the required close subject-lens proximity which is in the neighborhood of a half to one inch. With a little patience you can get some very interesting stuff. You may recall the pink fuzzy image of a pussy willow I shared last spring. Today's submission was taken with my work horse 18 - 200 at full extension which puts us at the opposite end of that 5x macro. In between we have extension tubes, close up filters, bellows, lens reversals, close focusing lenses, true macro lenses, and more. So the macro stuff can not only be achieved through a huge variety of approaches, it can also be achieved across a wide spectrum of cost. Our normal purchase of a few poinsettias each Christmas always provides for some fun photography and this year was no exception. With four varieties, white, red, mottled, and curly, I had lots of variety with which to experiment. This offering is of the white one looking straight into its petals. I've cropped the original a small amount to keep your eyes inside the frame and also applied a bit of dodging and burning to further assist. Tunnel Vision Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f / 9 with directed full flash.

23 Jan 20 Back to last Monday's snow a week ago. This shot was taken from the same spot from where I've shared several shots of the Olympics in the background and something of interest in the foreground, like the shot of the giant beaver mounds. The portion of the sky sans trees is where the Olympics would be if the clouds weren't blocking our view. This is primarily a documentary shot that shows two things: first, how blue the light was early that morning and second, the extent of the cloud cover. If you look carefully at the very top edge of the image you'll notice a slightly brighter area. The clouds were just beginning to break apart in a band which a few minutes later was going to let the sun coming from the east strike the trees and make the snow on the trees look like they had been decorated with lights for the Christmas season. Those were the shots I didn't get while driving to that appointment but at least I got to see it real time. Other than cropping off the top and giving this a wee bit of contrast enhancement, this is what the camera saw. At Morning's Break Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 800; 1/160 sec @ f / 9.

14 Jan 20 As it turned out the snow had all but ended while I was writing last night. The 3+ inches was all we got, but around us it varied from 8" to 1/2 " so it was a very irregular snowfall. But it was the most beautiful snowfall I've ever seen in this part of the PNW. I got to see it in all its grandeur on the way to my appointment; by the time I was returning that which had made it spectacular had ebbed. As I was driving to the appointment there was a break in the clouds allowing the sun to shine over the tops of the Cascades and beneath the clouds striking the trees and illuminating some of the clouds with a peachy tint. With the backdrop to the trees being deep dark grey, the combination was simply breath taking. I did make a couple quick stops to shoot two spots, but that was all time and traffic would allow. Today's submission is from the second of those two stops. Hopefully the colors will come out on your monitors. They aren't quite displaying on this mailbox as they do on the graphics box. The blue color is how it looked in the early morning light; feel welcome to turn the blue snow to white. It will definitely give the shot a different feel if you do! I've cropped a tiny amount off the bottom and given the barn red just a bit of punch; otherwise, this is what my eye and the camera saw. As Lovely as it Gets Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 800; 1/500 sec @ f / 9.

16 Jan 20 O.K, here we go with what I had planned for the mailing yesterday. After all my moaning about missing the good weather photo-wise on Monday, it turned out that I was able to get a "few" reasonable captures. This is a 14 frame composite of Dog Fish Bay in Poulsbo, now renamed by the tree huggers as Liberty Bay because Dog Fish Bay just wasn't proper. There is now a nice boardwalk parallel to the road but it is out of sight as you walk down the street on the sidewalk. I probably wouldn't have gone there if not for a resident telling me to do so and I did. I wasn't immediately sure how I wanted to approach the capture but decided to shoot from the narrow end of the inlet to give a better perspective of its shape. At the far left side of the panorama on the bottom edge is the marina and park. You can, or at least on Monday you could, walk down to the finger piers and shoot. I didn't because the ramp was icy and the finger piers still covered in snow, but it might have been worth it had I been a little braver. Next good snow, if I'm still here and not in Iceland, I'll try a shoot from the finger piers working with the boats and the surrounding landscape. You'll need to enlarge this to really appreciate it. This is a 14 frame pano stitched together that is basically what the camera recorded save for some straightening and a tiny amount of contrast enhancement. A Break in the Storm Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 9.

21 Jan 20 While walking along the boardwalk in Poulsbo where I took that 14 frame pano I was being distracted by a few aquatic birds who were either flying, landing, or standing. This particular seagull had made a couple circles - we'll just call them clearing turns for fun - when it suddenly decided to land. I wasn't sufficiently quick to capture the full sequence but I did get a couple of shots as it settled into the water. I used to shoot this kind of shot with some regularity of Canada Geese when we lived in Montgomery Village just off Lake Whetstone which hosted a flock of approximately 400 year round. They offered lots of photographic opportunity especially in the winter and I fully enjoyed having them so convenient.In the intervening 14 years I've gotten a bit out of practice so it was fun to try my hand at it again during that walk. I'm always amazed at how much water they push ahead of themselves as they glide to a stop. If you've never closely observed any aquatic bird landing in the water you owe it to yourselves to take some time and observe. I'll wager you'll be surprised at what actually happens as they land on the water's surface. This is straight from the camera sans some cropping off of the water on all four sides. Making Waves Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 9.

27 Jan 20 Back to the same location where I took the shot of the seagull but this time looking down the boardwalk instead of out into the harbor. This is the picnic area along the waterfront in Poulsbo, an old - in PNW time - Norwegian community known by many for a bakery that produces the best pastries you can imagine, or so I like to think. I remember it mostly for that bakery plus it was where the doctor my grand parents used had his office. It's currently about a 25 minute drive from our home but when we were kids visiting in the 50s it was closer to an hour's drive. Back then the mostly gravel road was rather serpentine but has since been straightened out and paved. Then there was no park, no parking lot, no gazebo and statue(s), and the moorage was just for the fishing fleet. And, as I mentioned before, it was known as Dog Fish Bay. Now it is all commercialized and primarily a tourist trap although used by all the locals for dining and drinking. On that snowy morning when I took the photos it was bustling with folks and their dogs enjoying the snow along with one young couple flying their drone over the entire area. Would have liked to see their footage. Observe that the community of Poulsbo got substantially more snow than did we which for some strange reason is rather common. This is straight from the camera save for a tiny bit of contrast enhancement and a small amount of dodging and burning. A Good 8 Inches Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f / 9.

20 Jan 20 Back to a snow scene again because I love shooting in the snow. You can only imagine how much I enjoyed my 4 months in Antarctica!! Thinking that would be a good place to visit again, if only I could get another all expense paid visit with included salary. Today we are looking eastward to where we should see the Cascade mountains or that's how I see it. What one sees of course is totally weather dependent. Directly in back ( or in front, depending on your perspective of things) of the trees and buildings is Puget Sound and you can even see a tiny bit of it between the 4th and 5th set of stakes from the right side supporting the barbed wire. This was an early afternoon shot and the light was playing beautifully on the trees with a backdrop of dark sky to support the light. The farm in front - with all the snow - used to belong to my Grandfather's best friend, my Grandparents living on the opposite side of the road of these two farms. The two gentlemen even spelled their names with a single letter difference, an "a." To put all this in perspective, this location is a 1/3 mile from where we live. The farm in front is where I frequently go to shoot the shots I share of the Cascades or interesting activity in the firmament above such as the 30+ exposure of the eclipse I shared last year. The original is what the camera recorded; I've cropped off some from the top. Perfectly Lit Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f /10.

17 Jan 20 Our Sunday/Monday snow has vanished, departing about as fast as it arrived. It came in different forms from little kernels, to a little of the nice dry stuff, and lots of the big wet stuff. The big wet stuff I can do without, but the dry stuff and the little balls of snow are always appreciated. I shot some examples of all of it to share but decided that the only close up of this snowfall that was worth sharing is one of the little balls. There is a nice grouping of Sword Ferns right where you turn onto our driveway and they are protected by a large rock and overhanging limbs. As such, they were able to keep the little balls of snow from coalescing or rapidly melting so I had a few opportunities to try and capture how they look. Even so, you can see several small droplets of water at the tips of the bracts. I know they have a particular name but I'm not knowledgeable of it. I remember being told growing up that the Eskimos have 20+ names for snow where we have just one. For grins, I thought I'd check that out but came up short. I found one article about them having 2, 5, or 12, and another one claiming 99, but no actual distinct names. So today all I can do is say that I have some shots of a fern with snow on it. The is straight from the camera with a wee bit of cropping. Snow Balls Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 800; 1/250 sec @ f /10.

24 Jan 20 Today's close-up submission is of an Amaryllis, a flower I first encountered during our first year on active duty. Not entirely sure how we got it, but we did and placed it on our living room window sill. I had experienced a fast growing flower back in our yard in Ballard when I planted my first Allium giantium but never before had we ever seen anything that grows as fast as the Amaryllis. We got one about two weeks ago and placed it in a small container in the kitchen to watch it grow. Over the weekend it literally took off and has grown approximately two feet in the seven days. I've often thought if I were back in school and teaching mitosis this is the plant whose cells I would likely prefer to use to demonstrate the process since the cell division in this plant must be amazingly fast giving many stages in a single tissue sample. Yesterday the flower was still tight and I took a few snaps, one of which is what I'm sharing. Right now as I write the flower is starting to open like the jaws of a shark, and I expect that by morning when you are reading this the flower will be fully deployed. I'll likely grab some shots of that as well. This image is a layered two frame build, one on top of the other, with portions of each showing. As the frames were shot with the camera mounted on a tripod and in the studio so no wind-age problem, the two images are identically positioned allowing me to "paint" in or out the portions of each as desired. I used two different forms of light, natural and flash, for the two images to get the final (desired) result. The two original images were layered as described above and I chose what I wanted showing from each frame. Emerging Red Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 320; one exposure with natural light @ f / 9 for 4 sec and the other for 1/60 sec @ f / 9 with full flash.

31 Jan 20 This will be my last mailing until I get back from Iceland. So for the next three weeks if you want to be entertained, you might consider visiting this link location which holds 50+ videos from Iceland shot by Mads Peter Iversen. IF I can come back with just one shot of the quality he gets I'll be happy and he has only been at it (photography) for less than a decade!! We'll end with another close up of an Amaryllis but this time just a half blossom. This was shot in the studio and I've combined two captures of the same composition. I used a combination of full flash, natural light, and overhead LED lighting to get the texture and color as I did. The flower is actually a bit more on the orange side, but by that I mean a very tiny amount. So this lighting setup gives the flower a deeper red color than is natural but one I like better than the original. The flash was used to bring out the texture (sparkle) in the petals which you won't see otherwise, the LED bulbs to bring out the green in the stalk which I didn't include, and the sunlight to balance the color. I employed light painting - letting part of one image "paint" over the same spot on the other image - to achieve the final desired result. This is straight from the camera with the exception of the light painting. Future Generation Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f /11 with full flash and 1/2 sec @ f /11 for the ambient light.