The recent WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge came last friday with the theme “Close-Up”. That is interesting, because the image I used in this post would have fit nicely to the theme, but I used it right before. Anyway, I have no problem to find another one.
We don’t have the best weather right now, it’s raining since some days, that means I had to dig in my folders to find an appropriate image for the challenge, one photo that I shot before the rain. To be honest, most of the time my photos are uploaded delayed anyway.
So, I decided to use one that I shot two weeks ago. I shot the photo in the garden, it’s basically a close-up photo, but also a little bit experimental. I wanted to focus close to the blossom of the plant, I wanted to have the background very blurry, it turned out ok I think.
As I promised in another post, I recently want to try to find the names of the flowers I take pictures of, that doesn’t mean that I dislike your suggestions, it just means that I might build up some flower knowledge on this way. So, of course, you can suggest the names too.
I went through this German list of blue and purple flowers, I found out the plant in our garden is lavender. A few minutes later, I got a phone call by my mother, I asked her and she said “Yes, the plant you are talking about is lavender”, I could have asked her first.
I researched a little bit more, it seems there are all kind of different sorts of lavender, around 25 to 30 different ones as it seems. Then I have read that Lavandula angustifolia is the only sort of wild lavender that is sometimes also found in German gardens.
My mother didn’t plant the lavender, maybe the former garden owner, otherwise it might really be that its wild lavender, Lavandula angustifolia, also known as common lavender, true lavender or narrow-leaved lavender. That’s what I researched, what do you think?
Diary of Dennis 
It’s a beautiful shot! I like the way the background is bright and colorful but out of focus. It makes such a pretty backdrop for the spikes of lavender.
Thanks Trisha. I recently started to understand how to get a bokeh and depth of field with my 18-105mm lens… although it’s not a good lens to do that, but I understand now in which situations I can force the lens to do that. Since then, I pretty much like to experiment with it… I did that with this photo here too 🙂 I am glad you like it. 🙂
The bokeh turned out beautifully. I’m still working on how to achieve that effect. I have so much trouble getting my subject in focus when the depth of field is so shallow. I think I just need to get out and practice some more.
Yes, I think you will feature this out the more you use your gear. I saw you commented in one of my posts you are using a Sony 18-50 mm. I am not sure about this lens, but I would try to get close to your subject and then using 50mm,… you said manual focus is some kind of problem for you, but I experienced I get the best results with manual focus anyhow as I decide how to focus. What also helps me is if there is enough distance between the main subject and the background. As in the case of my picture here, the hedge is 5 or maybe 7 meters away from my subject… my lens is not a bokeh monster, but in this situation with the distance it works anyhow to get this effect. You might experiment with that too. 🙂
nice close up photo and beautiful color contrast.
I am glad you like my photo 🙂