Hydrangea

Last weekend, took photos of some lovely blooming Hydrangea flowers. Also known as Hortensia, Hydrangea are shrub sized plants that can sport many large flowerheads, making them ideal ornamental flowery plants.

This also makes them interesting photo subjects, large shrubs in bloom could create ideal backgrounds too.

What attracted me to snap photos of this plant was the color contrast between the fully blooming pink flowers near the outskirts and the not fully opened ones which only had pinkish edges but were still mostly yellow.

In many species the color of the flower is apparently influenced by the ground in which the plant itself resides. Alkaline rich soils result in pink or purple flowers, so suspect this particular Hydrangea might reside in such soil.

This small potted shrub rested in the shade at the time I took photos of it, so used a tripod and remote trigger to be at ease and not have to worry about camera shake which allowed me to use shutter speeds of 1/60 for some shots.

Used my Canon 100mm macro lens, capturing minute details in the flowers. With f-stop at f/4,5, there’s plenty of bokeh as the 100mm macro’s depth of field is quite narrow.

Not long after, read an interesting user review and short guide on the Canon 100mm macro which says the sweet spot of this nice lens is at f/11 to f/13 where it should perform at its best to produce the sharpest images.

Will be putting that to the test sometime soon when I find another suitable macro photography subject. Using f/11 or more also means a sometimes welcome increase in the depth of field.

Though unless under bright lighting conditions, will be tied to the tripod at that f-stop since I do not have a suitable flash set.

If we can believe Wikipedia, Japanese 甘茶（あまちゃ） is made from Hydrangea serrata leaves which creates the sweet taste of the tea.

Interested in more photography? You can always see more of my photos here or on Flickr.