Natural Paintbrush

Spring in Texas is by far the best time of the year. Not only are the temperatures very pleasant but the Texas Wildflowers are in full bloom. Among the many colorful flowers is the Texas Paintbrush. It’s colorful stalks mingle with Texas Bluebonnets, Pink Evening Primroses, and Indian Blankets to form magnificent, colorful fields. There are many country roads that are lined with these colors and are very popular with wildflower enthusiasts. The congestion on these country roads rivals the busy streets of our metropolitan area. I photographed this Texas Paintbrush at McKinney Falls State Park earlier this week. This flower is known by many names including Indian Paintbrush, Texas Indian Paintbrush, Entireleaf Indian Paintbrush, and Scarlet Paintbrush.

I have been working on changing my wildflower photography technique by focusing more on the background Vs. just the flower and by eliminating the use of a flash. I used my time at the park this week to try some different approaches.  Most involve setting my tripod as low as it could go in order to change my vantage point in order to include a more interesting background. This photograph is a good example of this new approach. This flower is about 12 inches off the ground so you can imagine how low my camera setup had to be to capture it and the other Texas Paintbrush blooms in the background. I am also trying to use more natural light versus flash photography. I think the lighting is better without the harshness of the flash.

This image was taken with my Canon EOS 5D Mark III using my Canon EF 180mm f/3.5  Macro Lens. The camera was set on Manual mode with the aperture set at f/11, shutter speed at 1/640th of a second and the ISO set at  640. No artificial lighting was used. This single image was processed in Lightroom.

Also, you can access the profile for this flower by clicking here. Please use the section below to post your comments, questions or suggestions.

© 2016 T. Kahler Photography