Photography, Nature, Life

Red Silky Oak Macrophotography

Zooming in on my Grevillea banksii, with a Nikon Z7II and the new Nikon 50mm ƒ2.8.

“It’s a Butterfly Bush,” I was told at the nursery. I’d never seen a plant like this before— those spiky fingers that opened up into what looked like a handful of fluorescent green eyeballs looked absolutely alien.

There wasn’t a tag on the waist-high bush, so I wasn’t quite positive what it was, but I was enamored enough to swipe my credit card and bring my precious new find home. I planted it near my Buddha statue, a gift from India from one of my yoga students.

From where I can perch on a little stone patio, under the canopy of this very exotic-looking bush, I can bask in the dappled sunlight bathing both me and the Buddha.

It turns out that this lovely plant is a Grevillea banksii, or a Red Silky Oak, native to Australia, and (more recently) introduced to Hawaii.

I recently purchased the new Nikon Z-series 50 mm ƒ2.8 macro lens. What is so cool about this lens is that you can flip back and forth, with a little switch, between a macro view and a classical 50 mm lens view. The following photos were all taken in the macro mode.

A recent version of Outdoor Photography magazine delved into macrophotography techniques. A common method for obtaining clarity throughout the image is “photo-stacking,” where you take many, many images and then combine them into one. But I have to say that, while this technique does make for some gorgeous images, I do like the more “au naturel” look, where only one plane at a time is in focus.

Just notice the difference between the photo above, where the “eyeballs” in the front are in focus, and the following one, where the “eyeballs” in the center are in focus.

And notice the difference between the next two photos, where the little tubular “dragon’s claws” sit within different focal points.

One of the things that I love about macrophotography is the perspective of peering into the world of the very small. Perspective, and being able to step out of our own way to see how other people view the world, is a crucial part of being a citizen of the world. And the variety of perspectives which you can perceive while taking macrophotographs just adds to the cumulative view.

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).

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Story and photos © Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.