Thistles (El Dorado County Fine Arts Photographer)

 

I love thistles.  Not sure why.  Maybe it’s the lively colors.  Maybe it’s the very defined foliage.  I dunno, I just like them.  They are popping out in the Angora Fire Area in South Lake Tahoe, CA, right now.  I found a whole field of them when I was out with Obie T. (The) Dog on a walk the other day.  He always finds good things for me to photograph.

 

I’ve been working on making my landscape/still life photography better.  So, I thought I would practice on these lovely thistles.  Besides, I’ve been trying to photograph something interesting to hang in my bathroom, which is green.  I thought thistles would add a nice little pop of color to the whole scene.

One of the biggest problems with photographing thistles is that they are only one bloom on top of a long stem.  So, you have to make sure your background is pleasing and not distracting.  I found that out the hard way one morning after shooting about 25 thistle photos.  I failed to isolate the flower and I threw most of my shots away.

 

Luckily for me, the wildflowers are in full bloom in this area, so I just used the other flowers as background. I took two exposures of this particular scene.  The first one (above) has the thistle properly exposed and the background flowers quite light. I like it, but I think I like the next one better.  I got more of a silhouette on the thistles but backlight on the thistle-y part.  I like this one a lot. Makes them look almost dangerous to touch.

 

I also tried to isolate one of the thistles a little.  I added some texture post process and I rather like how it turned out.

 

Now, I have a few choices for my bathroom project.  I will probably have them printed on canvas and at least 16×20.  I think it will look swell. (Does anybody say that anymore?).

PS.  If you are interested in purchasing any of these as prints or canvases, contact me at schmautzhaus@sbcglobal.net.