Two Irises

I recently had the opportunity to photograph by a pond that is very close to my home and where there are hundreds of wild irises in bloom. This first photo is from a self-assignment on a trip there. The goal was to take one lens (I took a 100 macro), shoot handheld, and use a wide open aperture for selective focus (f2) and to blur the background. I like the result.

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Wild Iris © Howard Grill

I decided to return for a quick visit with my modified Helios lens to see how it might render the flowers. This is a great example of how the lens produces swirly bokeh. The swirl was even more marked out towards the edges of the frame, but I thought the image worked better in square format so I cropped the edges away. Still, there is plenty of swirl to go around!

Helios Iris © Howard Grill

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