I have this fascination for Dandelions. To me they are just so pretty…such an elegant marriage of form and function…dozens of delicate seed bearing “parachutes” arranged so symmetrically, just perfectly in a sphere, all designed to help propagate nature.
Dandelions have however eluded my photography because I usually come upon them when I don’t have all the equipment that I feel I need to capture them in their full glory. So I was thrilled to see a perfect dandelion appear in our backyard. My first instinct was to run out with my camera while my wife’s was to reach for the weed spray. Any “weed” that dares make an appearance in her garden must immediately be uninvited. Thankfully, she allowed me to indulge myself this morning on the condition that I “take care of it” afterwards. It’s still standing. I don’t think I can destroy such a thing of beauty.
My Setup
Below is a picture of my setup for the shot. You can see a flash with a sheet of paper used as a diffuser. Additionally, I used the white inside an old car shade around the dandelion to serve both as a windbreaker and to further bounce the light around a bit. I used my Nikon 105mm macro lens and took multiple shots at slightly different focus points. (I did not have a macro rail.) I then used photoshop to blend 4 or 5 images to create the final product. In the future I hope to document my setup and the steps to create my final image in more detail to help others out.
