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We need your help!
This has been an ambitious year for us at
Florida Native and Naturalized Orchids, with many field trips already
under our belt for the year and several that we would still like to
take.
Here is what we've done so far for this year:
- Disney Wilderness Preserve to film Calopogon multiflorus in flower.
-
Florida panhandle to photograph terrestrial bog orchids. During this
trip, we discovered the first known population of Calopogon multiflorus
in Leon County and filmed a large Pogonia colony deep in the
Apalachicola National Forest.
- South-central Florida to film Calopogon tuberosus and Sacoila lanceolata in large colonies.
-
Everglades National Park to try to photograph Trichocentrum undulatum
in flower - unfortunately, we missed finding these in bloom.
- Eastern Orange County on multiple occasions to film Calopogon tuberosus
in flower, Enc. tampensis in flower and Dendrophylax porrectus in its
habitat. We found a rare alba form of Calopogon tuberosus on one of
these trips.
Here are some field trips we hope to make:
- Fakahatchee Strand to photograph and film ghost orchids within the week.
- Withlacoochee State Forest, likely multiple times, to photograph rare Triphora orchids.
- Eastern Orange County to film Dendrophylax in flower.
- Everglades National Park in late summer/early fall to photograph and film Dollar Orchids in flower.
- Fakahatchee Strand again in the Fall to photograph and film Campylocentrum pachyrhizum.
Each of these field trips costs money for gasoline, food, and water, as
well as other expenses such as camera memory cards, insect repellent,
and the like. In short, it's not cheap to bring all these beautiful
wild orchids to you on our website, Facebook, our Youtube channel, and
blog.
NOTE: due to the rare nature of the orchids we will be
photographing, these upcoming field trips will not be open to the
public.
I need your help to make these plans a reality. A
donation in any amount, even $5 for a gallon of gasoline and a gallon of
water (it sure gets hot in some of these places), will help us with our
costs. Considering how many fans we have for this page, if a
reasonable percentage of you good folks gave even a small amount, we
will be able to continue to venture into the wild for the rest of this
year and bring you amazing photos and video of Florida's untamed
orchids.
Here is the link to make a secure donation to our cause
via PayPal using either an existing PayPal account or a debit/credit
card.
www.flnativeorchids.com/donate.htm
If you want to donate a larger amount, say $330, we have a number of
lovely photo canvases that we can send you to show our gratitude. Please e-mail me at premsta@gmail.com for availability.
If you are not able to donate, please consider sharing this page and
this link with friends who you know might be interested - people who
enjoy nature, hiking, the outdoors, wildflowers, gardening, and orchids
all have found enjoyment in our pages. Through your generous help, we
can expand the information and imagery we have to offer on this and our
other web sites.
Thank you, in advance, for any help you, our faithful readers, can provide.
Sincerely,
---Prem Subrahmanyam and the Florida Native Orchids crew.
We had a great time on June 7 at Fort Christmas Historical Park and nearby Orlando Wetlands Park. We saw many species of wildflowers and other plants on our leisurely walk through both these parks. Five species of orchids were found, including three in flower, and one in fruit.
Here are the orchids we saw in flower:
The Florida Butterfly Orchid (Encyclia tampensis)
The Grass Pink Orchid (Calopogon tuberosus)
Scarlet Ladies Tresses (Sacoila lanceolata).
Two other orchid species that we saw out of flower were the Greenfly Orchid (Epidendrum magnoliae) and the Jingle Bell/Needleroot Orchid (Dendrophylax porrectus).
I hope others can join us next year, as I hope to make this an annual event.
Over the years, many have asked how I take my photographs, from equipment I use to techniques I use for taking the photos and processing them. I have recently partnered with the website Orchids Made Easy at www.orchidsmadeeasy.com to create an on-line photography master course sharing many of my techniques and tips. While no one class can be a substitute for hard work and practice, the methods I share can help you hone your skills in the right direction.
In this course, I cover techniques for photographing cultivated orchids in the studio and wild orchids in situ, from lighting to composing the shot to editing the digital photos in a digital editing application (I cover both Photoshop and GIMP). There are many instructional videos used throughout the course, along with detailed, illustrated examples. Here is the course outline:
Introduction
1: About the Author
2: Purpose
Lesson 1: Equipment Overview
1: Introduction
2: Camera
3: Lens
4: Tripod or Camera Stabilization
Lesson 2: Sources of Light
1: Natural Light
2: Flash
3: Constant Light Source
Lesson 3: Photography 101 - Lighting
1: Three-point Lighting
2: Key Light
3: Fill Light
4: Back Light
5: Soft vs. Hard Light
Lesson 4: ISO & Exposure
1: Adjusting Parameters
Lesson 5: Aperture
1: Aperture Overview: From A-Z
Lesson 6:Composing the Shot
1: Subject
2: Backdrop
Lesson 7: Taking the Photos
1: Getting Started
2: Bracketing the Exposure
3: Varying the Lighting Angle
4: Varying the Camera Position
5: Focus on the Flowers
6: Putting it All Together
Lesson 8: Making Your Photos Sing
1: Why It Matters
2: Take Your Best Shot
3: Editing Software Tools
4: Adjusting Sharpness & Brightness
5: Adjusting Color
6: Removing Blemishes
7: How To Video Lessons
8: Before & After Comparisons
Lesson 9: Publishing and Printing Photos
1: Sharing
2: Printing
Addendum: Shooting Plants in Situ
1: Finding Wild Orchids
2: Best Environmental Conditions
3: Composition
4: Video Lesson
Conclusion
1: Parting Thoughts
Through this partnership, Orchids Made Easy is offering my Photography Master Course for $47 US with a money back guarantee if you're not satisfied. You can sign up for this course at the following link:
Photography Course Sign-up Link
Proceeds from this course go to help fund the Florida Native Orchids website, field trips, photography equipment and the like. As always, thank you for your support.
Breaking news! 05/07/14
A New County Was Added to the List of Known Florida Counties for the Rare Florida Native Orchid, Calopogon multiflorus.
Prem Subrahmanyam, curator of the Florida Native Orchid website, Facebook page, and blog, was exploring an area
of the Apalachicola National Forest on Sunday, May 4, 2014 near
Tallahassee, Florida (Leon County). In a recently prescribed burned
area, he found a small population (8 individual plants) of the rare
orchid species, Calopogon multiflorus, commonly known as the
Many-flowered Grass Pink. This species was recently upgraded from
endangered to threatened with the latest guidance released by the
Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Appropriate
officials have been contacted to let them know about this newly
discovered population. The previously closest known population to this location was 30 miles away in Liberty County, Florida.
The gallery page for this species on the
Florida Native Orchid page has been updated with a new photograph taken
of a member of this population, along with an updated map. Those can
be viewed at the following link:
http://www.flnativeorchids.com/natives_gallery/calopogon_multiflorus.htm
This brings to four the number of species that Prem Subrahmanyam has
been the first to discover growing in Leon County, Florida. Previous
first discoveries were Platanthera flava, Platanthera ciliaris, and
Zeuxine strateumatica.