Three Forks, Montana

Acton Arboretum 2022

May 25, 2022

The Acton Arboretum is within minutes of my house (by car). The last couple of years it has been quite crowded, even mid-week, due to the pandemic and the number of children and adults  "at home" and wanting to get out of the house.  Things are a bit better now and I finally feel like getting over there with my camera.

It seems most serious flower photographers use a tripod.  I do not.  A tripod just takes the fun away for me.  But I do carry with me a small fold-up stool that resides in the back of my van.  This helps me get low and to hold the camera steady. When I put my elbows on my knees I become a human tripod.  

Red TrilliumRed TrilliumOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Red Trillium

White TrilliumWhite TrilliumOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA White Trillium

Also helpful is that the Olympus camera I use gives me over 6 stops of image stabilization. In addition, I usually shoot at 1/250 second to reduce the liklihood of subject blur due to the small amount of flower movement I believe exists even on "calm" days. I typically shoot with an aperture of F4 and F8 and then choose the ones I like best when I am home and on the computer.  F8 of course gives more depth of field.  F4 gives better background blur. Less frequently I will use the in-camera photostacking feature with F4 ... this gives me the blurred background of F4 and the greater depth of field after stacking that I could otherwise only get with F8 or higher (i.e. narrower) F stops. I am happy with auto ISO; though if it gets too high (ISO 1600?) I will try dropping the shutter speed to 1/125.

My 2022 gallery of flowers photographed at Acton Arboretum is here:

https://www.peterfraileyphoto.com/actonarboretum2022