This spring has been plagued with cool and cloudy days.  We’ve had to wait so long for the spring flowers. But I couldn’t wait any longer for a sunny day to go take pictures, because the spring flowers are blooming.  So off to Boerner Botanical I went on a cloudy Wednesday.  

I decided to use my macro lens during this photo shoot and hand-hold my camera rather than deal with the tripod. So my first challenge was to get focused shots at ISO 100. That proved pretty much impossible.  I increased ISO to 200 in well-lit areas and increased ISO to 400 in darker areas.   My f-stop was at 14-16. 

Much to my surprise cloudy actually turned out to be advantageous.  When I started taking macro shots, I noticed I was getting amazing detail and true vivid colors.  There were no blow-out of color or detail and no shadows that you would normally get on a sunny day. 

Some examples:  

In The PinkFine detail and beautiful colors

TulipsVivid colors and minute detail

Cream TulipsFine detail and interesting color tones

Landscape shot taken with macro lensGood detail but I miss the blue sky

So macro shots on a cloudy day turn out great.  Look for the sun and blue skies when you are taking those scenic landscape shots. 

Want to see more of my photos from that cloudy day?  Check out Spring at Boerner.