Spring promises sun and with the sun come the sun orchids. Today's walk mission was to go back to do the walk that I had planned a few days before. Remember that I was waylaid by some walkers and walked up the other side of the creek to what I normally walk. Maybe I would find sun orchids with spots on my side of the creek.
Dotted Sun Orchid- Thelymitra ixioides
http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Thelymitra~ixioides
I was spoiled for choice on a fine sunny evening - lots of light coming from the West and ISO setting dialled down to ISO-400 and f-stop set at f/8 for all the photos. I am not one for making adjustments to the layout of the plants. I could have improved this picture a lot by getting the top flower away from overlapping the bottom one. This sun orchid has spots.
Taken at f/8, 1/500 sec ISO-400.
The next flower is not as deep in colour and it has not opened as widely. That makes the photo work harder - how to get good focus. Cameraman was not paying full attention either as he had not zoomed the lens past the edges of the extension tube. It makes the edges look a bit like a fishbowl.
Taken at f/8, 1/50 sec ISO-400. Lower light = lower speed.
The zoomed in version of the same flower is a whole lot more crisp
With the flower in focus the fishbowl effect looks a little better. It makes the eye flow into the focal point.
The next photos show the variation of the species - no spots. The key to identification is the shape and colouring of the column
Dotted Sun Orchid- Thelymitra ixioides
http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Thelymitra~ixioides
Taken at f/8, 1/50 sec ISO-400. And at a different speed the colours wash out
Taken at f/8, 1/100 sec ISO-400.
I found another partly open flower to test focal skills - wow this is hard work and disappointing to find the results are not great when I get home.
And for a change of colour and flower type - a wax flower about the size of an American quarter.
Photos taken with Canon Powershot G16 on August 27, 2017.