We're going back to my Mom's backyard to take a look at her Forget-Me-Nots. These flowers are usually found in gardens, as in this case, they were in my Mom's. There's some interesting folklore surrounding the name of the Forget-Me-Not. I don`t know how accurate these tales are, I found them on the internet after all, but one involves God naming the different kind of flowers on Earth when a youngster yelled out "Forget Me Not", thus the flower was named after him. The flower was also supposedly adopted by Henry IV during his exile and was also used in Newfoundland as the official flower of Remembrance for their soldiers who died in combat. My favourite story that I came upon had the flowers getting their name as a Knight was picking them for his Lady while walking along a riverside. He lost
his footing and fell into the river, drowning when the weight of his suit of armour pulled him under the water. Before sinking, he threw the bouquet of flowers he had picked to his Lady, shouting 'Forget Me Not!" That story kind of seems like the kind of story that seems almost to crazy to be true, which probably means that it is. To take something of a simpler turn, I like them because of their colours. The flowers typically grow in clusters of blue, white and pink. Much like the photo of the
plate of Smarties, I'm of the belief that our eyes are drawn to many colours. I also took these two pictures to serve as kind of a visual example on how you can use the aperture of your camera to adjust the depth of field in your photograph. The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 70mm. The second
picture was taken at f/8, 1/60sec, ISO 100 at 70mm. The first photograph has a shallow depth of field, meaning that the background it rather blurred out and the focus is on a select few flowers. The second photograph has a deep depth of field, meaning that more of the photograph remains in focus. These are the kind of cool things I like to do when left on my own while taking photographs and also is a great way to get more in touch with the settings of your camera. While I like the first photograph, the second one I chose to add to this post because, in the loosely quoted words of my father, "it looks like the kind of Jigsaw Puzzle that would leave you pulling your hair out." When I take photographs of flowers, I generally try to use my Macro lens, but it just didn't give me a wide enough look to get all of the flowers that I wanted to capture. I used my wide-angle lens instead, but by using a shallow depth of field, I think that I have pretty much accomplished as much as I could with the Macro, though with more flowers/colours. The third and fourth photographs of this set, which were later cropped in Photoshop into horizontal photos, were both shot at f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 68mm. I really like these two photos as, in my opinion, the flowers that are blurred and just as attractive to see as the ones that are in focus. It's an effect I like to use as often as
possible with flowers, but the truth of the matter is that it's also a technique that works very well with portraits of people as well. Imagine someone's face in the place of the flowers that are in focus, with the blurred background staying the same. Sure, I'd probably re-position the face, but I think that would make for a pretty nice portrait. I suppose that I should have spent the
time I used taking these photos being with my parents, but they're more than aware of my fondness for
photography, and my Mom gets a kick out of seeing her flowers here on my site. It's also just another example of how a little more than an hour in your backyard can leave you with not only ample opportunities for practicing your technique but to also play around with all of the different settings to see what kind of results you'll end up with. I came away with four photos just of the Forget-Me-Nots, and believe me when I tell you that there are many more photographs yet to be seen. Don't worry Mom, I'll get around to having them up here eventually.
his footing and fell into the river, drowning when the weight of his suit of armour pulled him under the water. Before sinking, he threw the bouquet of flowers he had picked to his Lady, shouting 'Forget Me Not!" That story kind of seems like the kind of story that seems almost to crazy to be true, which probably means that it is. To take something of a simpler turn, I like them because of their colours. The flowers typically grow in clusters of blue, white and pink. Much like the photo of the plate of Smarties, I'm of the belief that our eyes are drawn to many colours. I also took these two pictures to serve as kind of a visual example on how you can use the aperture of your camera to adjust the depth of field in your photograph. The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 70mm. The second 
picture was taken at f/8, 1/60sec, ISO 100 at 70mm. The first photograph has a shallow depth of field, meaning that the background it rather blurred out and the focus is on a select few flowers. The second photograph has a deep depth of field, meaning that more of the photograph remains in focus. These are the kind of cool things I like to do when left on my own while taking photographs and also is a great way to get more in touch with the settings of your camera. While I like the first photograph, the second one I chose to add to this post because, in the loosely quoted words of my father, "it looks like the kind of Jigsaw Puzzle that would leave you pulling your hair out." When I take photographs of flowers, I generally try to use my Macro lens, but it just didn't give me a wide enough look to get all of the flowers that I wanted to capture. I used my wide-angle lens instead, but by using a shallow depth of field, I think that I have pretty much accomplished as much as I could with the Macro, though with more flowers/colours. The third and fourth photographs of this set, which were later cropped in Photoshop into horizontal photos, were both shot at f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 68mm. I really like these two photos as, in my opinion, the flowers that are blurred and just as attractive to see as the ones that are in focus. It's an effect I like to use as often as 
possible with flowers, but the truth of the matter is that it's also a technique that works very well with portraits of people as well. Imagine someone's face in the place of the flowers that are in focus, with the blurred background staying the same. Sure, I'd probably re-position the face, but I think that would make for a pretty nice portrait. I suppose that I should have spent the time I used taking these photos being with my parents, but they're more than aware of my fondness forphotography, and my Mom gets a kick out of seeing her flowers here on my site. It's also just another example of how a little more than an hour in your backyard can leave you with not only ample opportunities for practicing your technique but to also play around with all of the different settings to see what kind of results you'll end up with. I came away with four photos just of the Forget-Me-Nots, and believe me when I tell you that there are many more photographs yet to be seen. Don't worry Mom, I'll get around to having them up here eventually.
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