The Vintage Point

45_AllenB

One of my favorite places to do close-up photography is on the railing of my front porch in the late afternoon on a somewhat warm winter day with little wind. We have some large green bushes (Nandina) in front of our porch with clumps of red berries. This can make a great background for a photo. The sunlight comes in from a low angle to the left of the porch and at that time of day bathes the entire railing area in warm light. I decided to again test out my Helios 58mm f2 lens in an area that was partly inside and partly outside. I set the aperture wide open and again got that lovely swirly background. It takes a bit of experimenting to get the right angle of the sun for this bokeh.

I played around with different relationships between the three flowers. I will leave the story up to the the viewer, although one friend said that they reminded her of the Republican presidential candidates. The Helios 58mm f2 came through again with a lovely bokeh, but it was more diffuse than the top photo.  I further enhanced it with two textures using TOPAZ Texture Effects.

46_AllenB

This photo of a Clivia was taken about the same time. Can you see how the low angle of the sun makes the centers of the two flowers glow? You can also see the red berries of the bushes faintly in the background. I again used Topaz Texture Effects to add a more painterly quality to the background.