Bob Crum

Around Easter time the Antelope Valley west of Lancaster is alive with hundreds of acres of gold-colored California poppies--a cornucopia of poppies such to cause a sudden copious flow of uncontrollable giggles. None yet this year, I miss them.

Another delightful flower I miss are lilacs. From Sunset Magazine: “(Lilacs) Flowers as pretty as party dresses, with a gently sweet fragrance reminiscent of Grandma’s dressing table, make lilacs sentimental favorites. Lilacs spark nostalgia ― possibly for a place where they once flourished, or perhaps for another era. But this nostalgia isn’t easy to create everywhere. In (So-Cal) mild-winter climates, you can’t pop just any lilac into the ground and expect an exuberant show of blooms come midspring. You’ll need to buy low-chill varieties.”

Aha! Low-chill varieties is the secret. If I had a place to move to hereabouts where I could play horticulturist, I'd plant a couple bushes of ‘blue skies’ lilacs: Very fragrant lavender flowers appear on an 8-foot-tall plant. Heavy bloomer. No need to adjust water to induce dormancy.” But I digress.

Speaking of flowers, the fabulous Fillmore Vision 2020/Civic Pride 2018 Fillmore Flower Show was held this past weekend--a tradition since 1919. The Active Adult & Community Center was full of exposed naked flowers in full bloom.

So many roses on display obviously many Fillmore residents are rose aficionados. A room full of rose blooms of various colors including pretty petite roses. Not just roses. Blooms and plants of differing kinds and colors were on display.

Photographically speaking, the flower show is a tough assignment. Lighting is not good but can't use flash because of excessive unsightly glare reflected from the plants. What's a photographer to do? Personally, I simply substitute margaritas for ice tea in the flask in my back pocket and shoot. Trade secret. Indoor fluorescent lighting like in the Community Center always present challenges. Pardon me here as I get a tad technical. Colors captured by cameras are interpreted in degrees of Kelvin (K) on a scale from 1,000 to 10,000. Kelvin represents the temperature of light, directly correlated with the color of the burning carbon at that temperature. This is important because the color of the light will affect the colors in photographs. Furthermore, cameras see colors differently than our eyes.

Hark, a remedy is at hand. Camera white balance settings compensate for a given light source Kelvin. Correct white balance (WB) makes white areas look white. The white balance setting chosen will change the color balance in your pictures, making it warmer or cooler depending on how the light affects the subject.

The various white balance settings on my Canon 7D MKII to approximate the K of the light are: Auto, daylight, shade, cloudy, tungsten light, fluorescent light, flash, custom and kelvin. Custom is interesting. More another time.

Outdoors on sunny days auto white balance works fine for landscape photos and mermaids sunning on the beach. Indoor fluorescent lighting often messes with 'auto' WB. Hence I switched the camera's WB to the fluorescent setting. But fluorescent light's K varies. What then? I can't dial in the K temp because I have no way of determining it. Matters not because the 'fluorescent' setting worked reasonably well. Any remaining color shift was corrected during post processing with Lightroom software.

The photo of the week is one of the many creative presentations at the show: Plant in a boot with a note on the rock. Test question: What do you see unusual about the photo data? Happy photoing!

Send comments, suggestions or questions to bob@fillmoregazette.com