Paphiopedilum moquettianum redux

[prem]

Latest bloom on this plant. Spread is 4 inches across. I'm really happy with the way this photo turned out.



---Prem

[Heather]

Well, you certainly can tell why they are known as "slippers" can't you? This one looks like it would slip right on a foot!

[LJA]

LOL! Heather, I was just about to say that. The pouch looks like the front of a Dutch clog.

Beautiful photo, Prem. I love how the hairs on those petals catch the light. Are you focusing manually or autofocus?

[prem]

LJA,
using autofocus. You can set it to focus on a fairly small portion of the view window. In this case, I was focusing on the staminode...the high f-stop value (8.0) gives the camera a pretty good depth of field that keeps most of the flower in focus.

---Prem

[LJA]

Prem, how many pics do you take of a bloom to get something really noteworthy? I've found that I have to take at least 10-15 or so at different angles and lighting to come up with just one that I think is decent enough.... You said you're really happy with the way this photo turned out--why in particular? Everything I've seen you post is of excellent quality, so what differentiates something you're pleased with as opposed to something you may feel isn't quite up to standards?

[prem]

interesting questions....I will take many more than 10-15 photos. This last moquett flower, I took 36 photos (and that's not many by comparison to some subjects I've taken). I'll try playing around with different orientations toward the light, different camera angles, and, of course, bracketing shutter speeds to get just the right exposure. I will then go through all the photos that have a reasonably good exposure and pick what I think is the best. You never know what combination of lighting, camera and flower angle will give you the best shot.

I really like the way the lighting fell on this particular photo--sort of semi-backlit, along with the almost-three-quarter viewpoint, and how the spike dangles in nicely from the upper right of the frame. It's hard to explain exactly why one photo might seem nicer than another...it just seems that in certain ones, all the elements really fall into place well.

---Prem

[Paphraguy]

Lja, like prem, I also take many shots of the plants/blooms from many different angles, lighting etc and then I go through the pics and pick the ones with the best results.

[LJA]

It seems to be the only way to get a really decent picture--take a *lot* of them. I'm going to have to take more at one time like you guys do.

[prem]

well, thankfully digital photography allows you to burn through lot of pictures without burning through tons of rolls of film and the cash in your pension plan.

---Prem

[Jmoney]

I like that one (picture)--you can appreciate the patterning on the dorsal, which is unique to moquettianum and quite distinct from glauco.