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Wild Poinsettia

I mentioned in previous posts that the summer heat has turned into tropical rain. The forecast called for lower rain chances and calmer winds so a I decided to go out and photograph Texas Wildflowers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center with one of my photography friends. We found this Wild Poinsettia (aka Fire on the Mountain) in a secluded area of the center. I used a manual focusing rail to photograph this plant using the focus stacking technique.

The Wild Poinsettia (Poinsettia cyathophora) is a small, wild poinsettia showing many of the characteristics of our ornamental Christmas poinsettia. It is annual in nature. In the dry garden it makes a charming and colorful patchwork of green, scalloped alternate leaves combined with a noticeable red blotch at the base of each of the bracts (often called “petals”) touching the base of the flower. It is one of the modest old-fashioned, tough plants sometimes seen in early Central Texas gardens. I was fascinated by the leaves and how they turned from red to green. The rain drop was an added bonus.

Wild Poinsettia
Wild Poinsettia

This image was taken with my Canon EOS 5D Mark III using my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro Lens. The camera was set on Manual mode with the aperture set at f/8, shutter speed at 1/80th of a second and the ISO set at 800. I did not use a flash to light the subject. I used the Kirk FR-2 Focusing Rail to capture 14 images, I brought them together using Photoshop. I used Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro to finalize the image.

This image is best viewed large. Clock on the image to enlarge it. You can see the profile for this plant by clicking here.  Please use the section below to post your comments, questions or suggestions.

T. Kahler Photography
© 2016 T. Kahler Photography

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