Terrestrial orchids 2015

[Chris Johnson]

Mark, I use a Canon 7D with a Canon 100mm IS macro lens handheld.
Whilst good kit makes it easier to get good images it really is all about the light.
Wherever possible I move the plants so that they are in good light whilst the background is in shadow. I shoot in aperture priority to control depth of field which can help the subject stand out.  I shoot raw files and convert them in Breezebrowser using a high chroma setting that mimics Velvia film.

As Peter suggests warm evening light makes a big difference -I have it available here on demand courtesy of the Grangemouth petrochemical complex. 

Steve - thanks for that information; 'handheld' is the biggest surprise. Macros struggle for depth of field so do you compensate with a high ISO number?

[Steve Garvie]

Steve - thanks for that information; 'handheld' is the biggest surprise. Macros struggle for depth of field so do you compensate with a high ISO number?

Chris the Canon 100mm f2.8 IS lens was the first macro lens to have image stabilisation (I think that Nikon & Sigma now have equivalents). This makes a big difference as does the noise handling abilities of modern digital SLRs. When an image is for internet use then increasing the ISO setting has much less impact upon on observable noise than when printing out the image at 300dpi.
A combination of good use of available light, image stabilisation and pushing up the ISO (if necessary) have freed me from the use of a tripod.

I still use a tripod for bird photography -heavy kit but it does help that I am on the robust side! 

[Chris Johnson]

Steve, that must be you on the left then 

I work mainly with macro but as my subject is fungi, light is often an issue so I tend to use a tripod all the time. I favour my Nikkor Macro 60mm 2.8 which hasn't got image stabalisation, but it's quite light to carry around. Perhaps I'll revert to my Nikkor Macro 105mm 2.8 VR (Vibration Reduction) for the alpines. It was bought for insect photography and achieved very good results (when the insects stayed still  )

Thanks for the info.

[Steve Garvie]

Last of the Ophrys to flower here:

Ophrys schlechteriana


Ophrys melena


Ophrys insectifera


.......and Orchis picta

[SteveC2]

Oreorchis patens flowering for me for the second time, bigger than last year which is a good sign.  Sorry about photos, not up to the other Steve's standard.  No warm evening light here, more like thunderstorms and a hoolie!  Will try to improve them tomorrow, try being the important word.

[Maggi Young]

Looks like just the kind of day we've had here SteveC2. 

[SteveC2]

A few more wintergreens to finish the season.  I have been pleasantly surprised by the number / quantity of tubers being made for next year.
The greenhouse's resident bee was following me round the plants.  Is that pollen or something else on its legs?

[SteveC2]

A close up of the Oreorchis patens.  I hope the identification is accurate.  I was looking in the Cribb and Bailes Hardy orchids book last night and the photograph of this looks like something completely different.

[Maggi Young]

Super photo, Steve.
I see what you mean about differences from other photos  purporting to be of this species. Your plants lip looks the same but the petal and sepals of yours are much more rounded at the tips   
Is that just natural variation? (I don't know!)

[SteveC2]

Even the leaves look very different in the Cribb and Bailes book, so perhaps it is a mistake, shock horror!  When I first started to grow hardies, back in the day, this was the only book available and so I have a very well thumbed copy, and I still refer to it more than the more recent Kew volume. 

It must be my age but I just trust books so much more than the Internet!  If you google Oreorchis patens you get many pictures, most looking like my plant, especially if you ignore what just might be distortion, but there is a Cypripedium in there as well as a Cremastra and Pleione.

[Maggi Young]

Yes, we have that Cribb and Bailes book too.

For those without - the internet  can give us :
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200028779

 and  http://richardiana.com//pdfRich/Richardiana-vol13-27-Oreorchis.pdf

 and I've found this site to have some good  species photos:
  http://www.orchidspecies.com/

[SteveC2]

The flowers in that Richardiana photograph look quite different to mine, but in most years the leaves are very similar by the time the flowers arrive

[Anthony Darby]

Unless that bee is extremely skilled at removing pollinia from its head, I would suspect the pollen basket on its hind leg is just pollen from other flowers. I don't see any pollinia on its head, which suggests it hasn't investigated any of the orchid flowers. Whenever I had bum bees visiting orchids they ended up with a cluster of "golf clubs" stuck to their faces, and this gave them no end of grief.

[mark smyth]

A bumble was working my O. italica today but didn't get any pollinia stuck to its head

[SteveC2]

The "theory" is that most of these Ophrys and Orchis etc. have specific pollinators such that only a certain type of insect can take the pollinia from a given species.  I am not sure that I completely buy into this, but it could explain the lack of pollen on the bee in my photo. 

I did wonder if it was a bit poorly as it seemed to be behaving strangely and sadly it has since died.