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| Native Orchids around Melbourne, Australia | Rate Topic |
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| Posted by Richard_M: Mon Oct 26th, 2020 18:14 | 1st Post |
| We're very fortunate in Australia to have an abundance of native orchids. In metro Melbourne we have a good selection, however, one needs to travel further afield to country Victoria for more species, or better still to Western Australia for some truly magical orchids. If you're on Facebook and interested in seeing many of these orchids I would suggest joining a few of the Australian Native Orchid groups, or if birding is your thing there are also a number of good groups. I will endeavor to post a number of my orchid finds over the coming weeks in this thread To start this thread I thought you might be interested in seeing some of the environment they are found in. I recently purchased a Fuji X100V as a companion camera and these images in this first post including the closeups are taken with X100V. Normally I use a macro for the orchids, which you will get to see some of the results in future posts. Due to Covid-19 we've been in strict lockdown for weeks. Only allowed to travel 5km from home, and only out for 1hr at a time. Luckily these restrictions are starting to ease. These photos are taken at a local flora and fauna reserve approx. 1.5km from home. There are a few reserves like this one within my 5km limit. #1 It was 14 DegC and overcast as I was heading up one of the main tracks  #2 Then it was onto one of the secondary tracks  #3 Now its time to start bushbashing  #4 Keeping an eye out for snakes  #5 You might be able to spot the spider orchid in the centre of the frame  #6 Closeup of the Spider Orchid  #7 Another orchid below the previous one  #8 These bronze caps are difficult to see, even harder to find. There are a few in this image with a pair in the centre of the frame  #9 Closeup of the Bronze Cap  #10 Then onto some Scented Caps  #11 Closeup of the Scented Caps  #12 A triple Scented Cap not far from the others  I will post a few more orchids soon.....
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| Posted by jk: Mon Oct 26th, 2020 19:02 | 2nd Post |
| After this weekend you should be able to venture out further as the lockdown eases.
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| Posted by Richard_M: Mon Oct 26th, 2020 19:18 | 3rd Post |
jk wrote:After this weekend you should be able to venture out further as the lockdown eases.Currently we're allowed out all day, but must stay within 25km from home. The next relaxation is supposed to be 8th November where we'll be able to travel throughout Victoria, but not interstate.
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| Posted by Robert: Mon Oct 26th, 2020 19:29 | 4th Post |
| Many thanks for that Richard, they are all lovely. Appreciate the introduction to the habitat, the general feel of the place, nice. I particularly like #12 because it provides front left, front right and back views of the scented cap orchid. This is my best effort with Disa. D200 and Micro Nikkor 55mm f/2.8, taken through glass, in a hurry... at a botanic garden of course.  Click here to comment on this image. Disa is a commemorative plant name, commemorating Disa, who was commanded to present herself before the mythological gods, neither clothed nor naked, therefore she draped herself with a fishing net. The orchid has a mesh-like pattern in the flower.
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by Richard_M: Mon Oct 26th, 2020 19:51 | 5th Post |
| That is gorgeous Robert, thank you for sharing Here are a few orchids currently in flower. There are more, but that will be for another post. #1 Pink Fingers (Caladenia cattenata)  #2 Cinnamon Bells (Gastrodia sesamoides)  #3 Dense Leek-orchid (Prasophyllum spicatum)  #4 Purple Donkey Orchid (Diuris punctata)  #5 Tiny Fingers (Caladenia pusilla)  #6 Copper Beard Orchid (Calochilus campestris)  #7 Purple Beard Orchid (Calochilus robertsonii)  #8 Hare Orchid (Leptoceras menziesii) 
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| Posted by Robert: Tue Oct 27th, 2020 05:37 | 6th Post |
Richard_M wrote:That is gorgeous Robert, thank you for sharing Thank you Richard, it was one of those lucky shots. Fortunately I had a rubber lens hood on the micro Nikkor 55, I pressed it against the glass, focused and made the exposure as we were being ushered out of the glass house by the curator. I just got the one shot. Your specimens are beautiful, both the flowers and the quality of the photography, thanks for taking the trouble to give the botanic name as well as the common name, I find it very helpful to understand what I am looking at. There can be a lot of information in the botanic name which may give some insights into the plant itself.
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by jk: Tue Oct 27th, 2020 07:31 | 7th Post |
| Love the donkey orchids but they are all very good.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Richard_M: Tue Oct 27th, 2020 18:36 | 8th Post |
| Thank you Robert and Jonathon A few more of our local orchids #1 Austral Ladies Tresses ( Spiranthes australis)  #2 Elbow Orchid (Thynninorchis huntianus)  #3 Autumn Bird Orchid (Chiloglottis curviclavia)  #4 Dainty Bird Orchid (Chiloglottis trapeziformis)  #5 Large Duck Orchid (Caleana major)  #6 Fringed Hare Orchid (Leporella fimbriata)  #7 Orange-tip Fingers (Caladenia aurantiaca)  #8 White Bunny Orchid (Eriochilus cucullatus)  #9 Red-beaks (Pyrorchis nigricans)  #10 Brown-beaks (Lyperanthus suaveolens)  #11 Small Gnat Orchid (Cyrtostylis reniformis)  #12 Black-tongue Caladenia (Caladenia congesta) 
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| Posted by Graham Whistler: Wed Oct 28th, 2020 06:54 | 9th Post |
| Super pictures thanks for sharing them with us.
____________________ Graham Whistler |
| Posted by jk: Wed Oct 28th, 2020 09:06 | 10th Post |
| Great images Richard. Superb detail and exposure. What sort of magnification are these? If I remember correctly some of these orchids are pretty small.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Bob Bowen: Wed Oct 28th, 2020 12:55 | 11th Post |
| Cracking images Richard. Admire your skill and agility. If I got down that low nowadays I'd need a crane to get me up.. Keep 'em coming.
____________________ Bob Bowen |
| Posted by Richard_M: Wed Oct 28th, 2020 20:23 | 12th Post |
Graham Whistler wrote:Super pictures thanks for sharing them with us. Thank you, I'm glad you like them
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| Posted by Richard_M: Wed Oct 28th, 2020 20:31 | 13th Post |
jk wrote:Great images Richard.Thank you Jonathon Yes, the majority are very small. Many can be covered by an Australian 5c coin, which would be similar in size to a British penny (roughly 20mm) With regards magnification at a guess many would be 1:2 with the odd one 1:1
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| Posted by Richard_M: Wed Oct 28th, 2020 20:48 | 14th Post |
Bob Bowen wrote:Cracking images Richard. Admire your skill and agility. If I got down that low nowadays I'd need a crane to get me up.. Keep 'em coming.Thank you Bob I don't get down and dirty, I leave that for the camera.  I either have the camera inverted on a low tripod so the lens is close to the ground, you will see why when I show a few of the helmet orchids. If its windy I will take the photos handheld, and as with using the tripod I use LV via an articulated screen for focusing and composing.Many of the orchids are amongst bull ant nests, you can see a few in image #8 of the first post of this thread. An example of orchid leaves on the side of a bull ant nest  These are what they look like  Another reason for using the camera inverted on a tripod, or handheld, not all of the orchids are in a location to get down low, like these helmets surrounded by bracken  Quite a number of enthusiasts will laydown to take photos, unfortunately many times they end up laying on other orchids I'll post a few more orchids shortly
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| Posted by Richard_M: Wed Oct 28th, 2020 21:41 | 15th Post |
| Here are a few of the Helmet Orchids which flower close by. These are basically a winter flowering orchid #1 Spurred Helmet Orchid (Coybas aconitiflorus)  #2 Fringed Helmet Orchid (Corybas fimbriatus)  #3 Veined Helmet Orchid (Corybas diemenicus)  #4 Mountain Helmet Orchid (Corybas grumulus)  #5 Pelican Orchid (Corybas unguiculatus)  #6 Slaty Helmet Orchid (Corybas incurvus) with Aus 5c coin for size comparison  #7 Slaty Helmet Orchid (Corybas incurvus) closeup of previous orchid  #8 Slaty Helmet Orchid (Corybas incurvus) profile image when they are fully upright 
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| Posted by Robert: Thu Oct 29th, 2020 00:13 | 16th Post |
| Amazing, the variety and quality is astounding, thank you for sharing with us. These are tiny Orchids, as you note, finding them must be a challenge. I assume habitat will be a clue but they still need finding at the right time in order to see them at all. I have read that the tubers are minute, no more than 3 to 4mm in length, that is amazing. I find the genus Coybas naming very interesting, apparently the genus was named by Richard Salisbury for a male Greek dancer, shown in illustrations wearing a crested helmet, who worshipped the goddess Cybele. Korybas was a priest of Cybele, "whose religious rites were accompanied by frenzied music and dancing". As you may have gathered, I am very interested in commemorative plant names and their origin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Anthony_Salisbury
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by jk: Thu Oct 29th, 2020 04:39 | 17th Post |
| Robert, you need to tell Richard about your book. How close to finishing it are you?
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Robert: Thu Oct 29th, 2020 06:38 | 18th Post |
| The text is finished. The book is entitled Discoverii and is effectively a dictionary of commemorative plant names with information about the author (the person named in the plant) ranging from a few words to two or three pages for individuals who were more active or well connected. In all around 625,000 words, originally typed manually by my late father in 1972/3. I have it on my iPhone, in iBooks format, fully searchable, in fact that was what I referenced for some of my comments here. What I need to do is incorporate the illustrations and publish, my big holdback has been how to publish it. I was intending originally to use Kindle, but then Apple introduced iBooks. The book relies heavily on styles of formatting, a bit like a dictionary. I have issues with using a publishing service like Kindle and iBooks but hope to publish it from my own website, which I now have a decent hosting for, thanks to Chris. https://www.lcn.com This was why I needed an up to date version of In-Design because publishing on 'tinternet is a fast moving target and formats and protocols are changing rapidly, especially on the security side with many browsers set to ignore or reject 'insecure' websites. This means the content and the site itself need to be well up to recent standards. Monetising is is less important than getting it published; using the Kindle or Apple platforms seems to me absurd, they take 30% of any revenue, then the US IRS take 30% of what's left. Then you have to explain it all to UK Customs and Revenue, the (considerable) allowable expenses incurred fall well outside the permitted timeframe so I can't offset any tax against incurred expenses apart from perhaps the hosting. The administration effort just isn't worth the candle. So, my intention is to publish in the form of a free website, a little like Roland Vinks pages. But to be honest I have been so busy with distractions over the last few years that no progress has been made for far too long. I keep adding to my photographs whenever I get a chance and this interesting tidbit in my last post has added another morsel of new information about Richard Salisbury which will be added to my notes but I have resolved not to add anything new to the text, except to correct any factual errors I might notice, until it is published, else it will be self perpetuating (if it isn't already...). I am still alert to commemorative plant names but seem to be in something of a log jam at the moment. ...And time ticks by.
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by jk: Thu Oct 29th, 2020 12:34 | 19th Post |
| Robert, I think we need a telephone call to sort out a way forward. I am sure that it is possible and it is not so difficult once you get started. Give me a call.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Richard_M: Thu Oct 29th, 2020 17:30 | 20th Post |
| Sounds like it will be a great resource when its published Robert. I have only been photographing native orchids for a few years. I spent many years photographing fungi, mostly in the same reserves as several orchids. It was one of my neighbour's who suggested I should check out a few of the orchids in one of our local reserves. I was in the reserve one afternoon wandering along one of the tracks when I met another photographer who showed me a patch of mosquito orchids. They are so small and with my ageing eyes, I could not see any detail in the flower at all. It was only when I was looking at the image on the computer, I could see it properly. One thing about native orchids there are species flowering all year round, whereas fungi is generally only for a few months each year. I still photograph fungi if I see some while on my travels, and still travel out the odd night for ghost fungi. Omphalotus nidiformis aka Ghost Fungi. It was a full moon this evening hence ambient light in the background. No moon is better to see the ghost fungi glow   Mosquito Orchids (Acianthus pusillus)  Closeup of usual colour  Occasionally you can also see them in green form  
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| Posted by Robert: Thu Oct 29th, 2020 19:07 | 21st Post |
jk wrote:Robert, Give me a call. PM sent 
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by Robert: Thu Oct 29th, 2020 19:16 | 22nd Post |
Richard_M wrote:Sounds like it will be a great resource when its published Robert. Thanks Richard, looking forward to that I have only been photographing native orchids for a few years. I spent many years photographing fungi, mostly in the same reserves as several orchids. It was one of my neighbour's who suggested I should check out a few of the orchids in one of our local reserves. I was in the reserve one afternoon wandering along one of the tracks when I met another photographer who showed me a patch of mosquito orchids. They are so small and with my ageing eyes, I could not see any detail in the flower at all. It was only when I was looking at the image on the computer, I could see it properly. One thing about native orchids there are species flowering all year round, whereas fungi is generally only for a few months each year. I still photograph fungi if I see some while on my travels, and still travel out the odd night for ghost fungi. Richard, these are superb, so many tiny orchids, it's amazing and the variety, there seem so many. I am very interested in stacking with flower and insect images, I am planning an improvised stackshot type mount but haven't time to describe it right now, need to get to bed, busy day tomorrow.
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by Richard_M: Thu Oct 29th, 2020 20:45 | 23rd Post |
Thank you Robert"Richard, these are superb, so many tiny orchids, it's amazing and the variety, there seem so many." We reportedly have 410 native orchid species in Victoria. I will get to Western Australia for some orchid overload. I do hope to see the Queen of Sheba, all 3 variants at some stage. Here are a few links for the Queen of Sheba http://orchidswa.com.au/thelymitra-sun-orchids/queen-of-sheba/ In case some of the links are geolocked I will put the text in a quote https://www.smh.com.au/national/orchid-fever-as-10-year-quest-finally-unlocks-queen-of-sheba-s-secret-20200521-p54vb6.html Orchid hunters are a real group of people, and Western Australia is one of the best places in the world to be one – especially when one of the world's most rare and spectacular specimens is primed for a comeback.https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/news/conserving-the-queen-of-sheba Conserving The Queen of Sheba
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| Posted by Richard_M: Thu Oct 29th, 2020 21:30 | 24th Post |
I am very interested in stacking with flower and insect images, I am planning an improvised stackshot type mount but haven't time to describe it right now, need to get to bed, busy day tomorrow.Robert, I do a lot of focus stacking. I started off using a CamRanger in conjunction with Nikon bodies. I photographed most of my fungi using this method. It served me well for many years (I still use it occasionally). Once I started photographing native orchids I found it was too slow and cumbersome for the task. As I was also a Fuji user I started using one of the bodies with focus bracketing built in, which made life much simpler. However, I still wasn't 100% happy as a user and after a while I tried out an Olympus body. I use the Olympus almost exclusively for native orchid photography. Nikon have since introduced focus (shifting) bracketing into several of their bodies. Fuji have had it for sometime, and now they have released the X-T4 with fully articulating screen which does help for subjects in awkward locations. Olympus does both focus bracketing, and focus stacking. What I like about the Olympus implementation for focus stacking is it brings the focus point closer to the camera after taking the initial image. I use the max 15 image focus stack. It take the first image at the focus point, moves focus closer to the camera, take 3 images as it moves focus towards the initial focus point, then another 11 images past the focus point. This covers the majority of my orchid requirements. The reason I find the Olympus method better is with small subjects, poor eyesight, and most of the time photographing subjects on an angle, I'm not always sure which part of the subject is closest to the lens. Both Fuji and Olympus allow for a programmed button to activate the focus bracketing, Nikon you need to use the menu system. Both Fuji and Olympus allow you to watch the focus shift as it progresses on the LCD screen, much easier to watch for subject movement IMO. Nikon blanks the screen and you need to keep an eye on the subject for movement, which is not so easy when the subject is tiny. Both Fuji and Olympus set focus back to the initial focus point when the sequence is completed. Nikon (and CamRanger) leave the focus where the sequence has finished, which is handy if you need to take a few more images to get all of the subject in focus. I'm not sure what other camera manufacturers offer regarding built-in focus bracketing. I also have a StackShot rail, which I use at home, not in the field. The CamRanger also works with the StackShot I have, so it means I can control the whole operation remotely via a tablet or computer using WiFi. Good luck with your project, I look forward to seeing some of your results when you get it operational.
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| Posted by jk: Fri Oct 30th, 2020 10:30 | 25th Post |
| Wow, I really like those Ghost fungi. I wish I could come and see those. Need a trip to Melbourne. but not at this time.
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