Flowers from the Philbrick-Criscenti Bog

[bikehikeskifish]

During my annual family vacation, we walked around the Philbrick-Criscenti Bog in New London, NH. There were numerous interesting flowers, only one of which I can ID (and by family only.) These three are my favorite shots of the several dozen I took. Feedback appreciated.

A pitcher plant

1/500 @ f2.8 ISO 100 Canon A570IS

Grass Pink Orchid (thanks JS!)

1/500 @ f2.8 ISO 100 Canon A570IS

White Fringed Orchid (thanks JS!)

1/500 @ f2.8 ISO 100 Canon A570IS

Tim

 

[w7xman]

Nice shots...bogs can be a rough place to go this time of year, but also have some very unique flora.

Your two unknowns are Grass Pink Orchid and White Fringed Orchid respectively.

Flower photography like this is about isolating a sharp subject against a background. I think that the White Fringed Orchid best accomplishes this, as you take in the whole plant, without being distracted by anything else in the frame. It's a great shot of a nice plant.

The colors in the pitcher plant are great as well. You lose DOF as you look down in the plant, which gives perspective of depth. I don't think you could ever get the whole center in focus, so I think you choices of focus in this comprimise work very well too...

Nice finds!

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Thanks, Jim. There are thousands of the pitcher plants, and dozens of the orchids. The problem, of course, is that you can only reasonably capture the ones adjacent to the bog bridges without risking sinking into the bog (official depth is 20 feet.)

There are also blueberries on the "shore" of the former lake, and plenty of other flora species, as well as many birds. The white-throated sparrow is the highlighted bird in the self-guide brochure.

Tim

 

[kmorgan]

A little more depth of field would greatly enhance the shots. Just enough to have the flower(s) completely in focus while leaving the background blurred. The pitcher plant shot would have benefited most. Nice work. Hard subjects without a tripod.

Kevin

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I tend to agree with you, Kevin. In my experience, however, with the camera I have, increasing the f/stop in these situations will bring the background into focus rather quickly.

Even this one



which was shot wide-open (EXIF says 2.6) but pulled back a bit shows the berry and bog rosemary in much clearer focus.

Next trip I guess I will try the same shot through the entire range of f/stop-s just to see. Not carrying a tripod though it's difficult. Personally I am pretty happy with the way these came out. There was a fair amount of sky cover, with muted sun peaking through. Just enough to give some highlights without stark shadows.

Tim

 

[Kevin Judy and Emma]

Nice shots Tim!

They're great shots, Tim! A little more DOF would have helped on the Pitcher Plant, but still very nice! I thought the Pink/purple one was an orchid, wasn't sure on the white one. Thanks for the ID, Jim!

KDT

 

[Mark Schaefer]

They are all very nice. And a good job handling the somewhat harsh lighting. The two orchids probably work better in that the flower stands out against the background. I really like the texture in the Pitcher plant, and perhaps it could do with some cropping to avoid some of the background. I am attaching a quick crop. I just rotated the image 16 degrees and cropped away to primarily eliminate the two most distracting stems on either side: