Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Capturing Alaska

with Wayde Carroll

Focus on Flora




    OK, so it’s the dead of winter and there’s not a wide variety of flora to be found, maybe that’s why this topic is so appealing right now. I’m really looking forward to the long days and wild plant growth that come rapidly during the short Alaskan summer. Right now we have about nine hours of daylight and are gaining about six minutes per day. It’s starting to feel as though spring may actually come!
  No matter what I’m out shooting I always seem to end up with some images of the local plant life. There is such an endless variety of natural patterns, textures, colors, and shapes that it’s impossible not to be excited over and over again.
  As with any other subject matter, lighting plays a key role in capturing interesting flora images.
  Here are a few examples in different situations.
  In image #1, it was a very overcast day. This is actually beneficial in this specialty in that the sky then acts as a giant soft box spreading diffuse light over the subject. This eliminates harsh shadows and saturates colors. To add to the diffuse effect I shot this fireweed through several other fireweed. Because I used a wide open aperture on my 200mm lens I kept a minimum amount of the image in focus and was able to completely blur the blooms directly in front of my lens. This gave the image a nice soft quality.
  For image #2 I used backlighting. It was a very sunny afternoon in the Chugach National Forest. I was struggling to find any pleasing images that conveyed what I saw in this dense, lush forest. The direct sunlight coming through the trees made for a very contrasty scene. This would have been an ideal situation for the diffuse light of an overcast sky, but, alas, not this day.
  I started to explore my options and as I got down low for a new perspective I noticed the sunlight back- lighting the leaves of the devils club, which is abundant here. This was perfect! I was able to find a composition that highlighted the dense undergrowth as well as show the forest setting in the background.
  Image #3 was taken on a drizzly, overcast, day in Denali. I was hoping to get the quintessential image of Denali mirrored in Wonder Lake but with the inclement weather I started to look towards the ground. In the tundra there are endless fascinating miniature plants. I was particularly drawn to the mushrooms. I took some images but there was no spark to them. I finally took out a gold reflector and bounced this warm light onto the scene. That was more like it!
   In image #4 I obviously used silhouettes to define the grasses around Wonder Lake. This is another use of backlighting. For this technique, set your camera on manual exposure. Achieve a correct exposure for the bright evening sky and your subject, which is in shade, will be rendered as a silhouette.
   By keeping your eye open to the various lighting possibilities such as backlighting, diffuse light, and reflected light you can usually create nice images in almost any situation.
Don’t be afraid to experiment by adding light with your flash either!