Today I would like to show you a series that I had hoped for a little on our trip to Majorca. It's about iris plants, more precisely about the wild gladioli that grow there in spring.
However, it hadn't worked out the last two years, even though we were there early (in April). I discovered them for the first time three years ago - but I had only ‘invested’ the few good mornings with good light that year for bird photography and therefore photographed the gladioli during the day when it was cloudy.
Interestingly, there weren't exactly many days to capture photos oft he gladioli, because the period was shorter than I thought. In principle, you can see them everywhere on the right days; in fields, on roadsides, on overgrown plots of land, in meadows with poppies or canopy flowers or a mixture of all of these. But time was limited:
- I only saw the first blooming ‘group’ of gladioli in the second half of March, a few days later they were everywhere in the south
- However, on closer inspection, most of the flowers had already dried up 8-9 days later
- But it wasn't even 8-9 days, because gladioli change their shape a lot and grow very tall and straight in their fully grown form; In the ‘younger’ form, their appearance is much more photogenic in my eyes
- In terms of weather, I also needed calm winds and the sun at a very flat angle
- Due to the changeable and above all windy weather, this ultimately left four sessions of approx. 40 minutes each for the backlight shots
As a result, I haven't actually been able to realise many image ideas yet and hope to catch this period again in the coming years.
From a technical point of view, the conditions on site meant that I needed a little more focal length for this look. I was lucky, because I never have a macro with me when travelling, and these plants are quite large anyway.
I think a 300/2.8 or 400/2.8 would have been ideal. With a 600/4 it was quite a hassle, as you had to bend over and handle the 6kg combo (incl. camera and tripod) the whole time and adjust the tripod height what felt like a million times, which was quite exhausting with the setup and coupled with several mosquito bites 😉
I have also attached a few shots of other early bloomers, all of which were in close to the gladioli.
Now I hope you enjoy the pictures 👋
I hope you enjoyed the series 👋
Viele Grüße,
Thomas