First spring wildflowers (and photo considerations)

After Hepatica, trout lilies (Erythronium spp.), violets (Viola spp.), and in our region, a rare and endangered wildflower, Oconee bells (Shortia galacifolia) are often the next to flower.

Photos by Tim Spira (copyrights reserved)


Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) and trillium (Trillium spp.) and all the rest aren't far behind.

I've been spending a lot of time in the digital darkroom this week, making sure the printed photo proofs of my gardening companion's excellent wildflower photos match what we see on the screen.

It's not actually as easy as you'd hope. The translation from digital image to printed image requires more of a universal language than his iMac speaks (with its bright, glossy extra-large screen) and the RGB to CMYK conversion, I'm leaving to the publications folks.

I've been using Adobe Lightroom 2 to standardize what we see, translating the bright screen images to similar print versions. So far, it's been fabulous, and it looks like the printed version (even on a home inkjet printer) are excellent. Tomorrow, we'll test them on a professional photographic image-setter printer.

I'm crossing my fingers -- these photos reflect SO many, many hours of work, getting to the places at the right times to take them, taking multiple shots of many species, and now making sure they reflect what Tim (my gardening companion aka my husband) saw... we want them to look right.

These are (reduced in size) images of Oconee bell and trout lily that will appear in his book.

Comments

  1. I did't realize there was so much to deal with in the digital editing. I play with some of my photos within Picasa but that is it. I think the photos you shared are great.
    ps- linked you to my Beech post.

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  2. Isn't nature grand~The trout lilies are fantastic and I have only seen oconee bells in wildflower books...I use iphoto and it is limited....I see a photoshop program in my future. Have you looked at pixalator...very mac friendly. gail

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  3. Book? Book?
    I love your blog and bet the pictures will be spectacular. We were in Oconee Station last week and the hepatica was blooming, the trout lilies budded. Every day I see buds swelling that were fully dormant the day before.
    We can not stop Spring!

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  4. Oh, I love trout lily!

    (Found your blog on Blotaical. It's a delight.)

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  5. I'm so glad that spring is finally here (late for us in the SE US).

    But I don't recommend spending any more time in the digital darkroom than you need -- it's much more fun to be out in the woods or the garden!

    Lisa

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  6. I'm so glad that spring is finally here (late for us in the SE US).

    But I don't recommend spending any more time in the digital darkroom than you need -- it's much more fun to be out in the woods or the garden!

    Lisa

    ReplyDelete

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