We sometimes travel distances for beauty. On a recent Tuesday we traveled 2 hours to Ironstone Vineyards in Murphys, California. Why did we drive all that way? Because I know it’s beautiful, and there would be no disappointments. Well, sometimes it could be raining like during my last visit there. There was a little wind, so that meant we didn’t use our macro lenses. However, my 18 – 140 Nikon lens does excellent close up photography in the wind.

During shooting the flowers and grounds, I was having some trouble with my camera’s exposure. I would compensate and then on the next picture, re-compensate. It was bothering me because it meant that I would have to take two shots. One to let me know if I needed to compensate and another with the compensation. Maybe someone can help me figure out if I have a problem with camera or lens. It may be that the sun was bright, but then I’ve shot in bright sun before. Oh, it didn’t happen on my photo outing this week!

Other than that frustration, we had an enjoyable day. And, since I wasn’t driving, I napped on the way back. Yes, the key to traveling long distances is to pick a worthy spot–then you don’t mind the long drive, especially if you can snooze a little on the way home.

This will be a two-part post. Today, I’ll show you some of the flowers. Most are tulips, but there are others. In the next post, I’ll show you the grounds and cavern (wine cellar).

13 thoughts on “Beauty; no beast: Ironstone Vineyards, Murphys, California”

    1. Thanks Leanne for saying that I got some gems. I really appreciate it. I just checked my camera and bracketing is off. However, I did go on an outing since then. It will be something to add to my check list when I go out along with ISO setting!

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  3. Lovely gallery of flowers.

    I have been dealing with exposure compensation (or overcompensation) while shooting in the garden. The main problem I have been dealing with is overexposure and washing out of details. I’ve resorted to using spot metering on the brightest part of the flower and even underexposing that 1/3 to 2/3 stops. It’s just easier for me to bring back the shadows/darks in post processing than bringing back detail in overexposed areas.

    Don Smith’s blog post today discussed amping up the ISO in windy situations. He does shoot with a Sony ar7ii so noise isn’t really an issue at higher ISO, but it might be worth trying if you can use your macro in windy situations.

    http://www.donsmithblog.com/2017/05/04/5-tips-for-better-wildflower-photos/

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    1. Thank you so much Steven for your input. I’ll give it a try. I’ve been spot metering on the dark area, locking in the exposure, and then moving the camera to shoot the composition I want. And I’ll look into Don Smith’s blog. Again thanks!

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  4. Lovely photos, Anne!!!
    I always shot in manual and with flowers I try to not overexpose, as I loose a lot of details… And I now the colours are not the same, are a bit duller, but cloudy days help me a lot when I am photographing flowers 🙂

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    1. Hi Mercedes

      Since I have a crop sensor camera, it helps when shooting flowers because it lets in less light. It’s a bummer when shooting indoors. I shoot on manual with a 105 mm macro lens (if there’s no breeze) or my 18 – 140 mm carry around lens. I shoot with both at about F/6 – 7.1. So far so good–no blown out flowers. If your colors are dull, you can always pop them up in Lightroom with the color sliders. I found if I move the saturation and luminance sliders to the right, I can maintain the deep color and have the color pop.

      I loved your NYC images.

      Take care,
      Anne

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      1. I take pictures in my past time too.. Using a phone though. I’ll upload them in a new blog. 😬

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