Even though I had gone to the trouble of location scouting in advance, this season’s “red spider lily walk” started at Tama Central Park, which had nothing to do with the location scouting. I happened to be in the vicinity of the park on an errand and found the flowers in bloom.
So I started shooting with my Lumix G99, which I had brought with me that day to use for another errand.
The Leica DG50-200mm lens really captures the red color in a very glossy way.
However, the shooting itself was quite a tightrope walk. The sky was very unstable due to the approaching typhoon, and I had to use my umbrella to avoid the occasional rain shower.
No matter how splash proof the equipment was, this was a bad time. I was in the shower as I evacuated while protecting my camera and lens. I could have been brave enough to go out in the rain if I had brought a change of clothes in case I had to do something later on.
However, it was worth the trouble, and when the rain stopped and the sun shone a little, I was rewarded with the opportunity to photograph the wet and shiny flowers.
A few minutes walk from the station of Tama Center, famous for Sanrio Puroland, there was a cluster of red spider lily growing (or rather, in the process of being cured to create a cluster) in a corner of Tama Central Park spread out on a hill, and thanks to the bad weather, I could enjoy photographing them all to myself.
Here is another shot with the Leica DG MACRO45mm lens.
It’s really difficult to know where to bring this flower into focus. This is especially true when I take a close-up shot.
I have also wondered about something else for a long time. It is natural that the same flower taken with different lenses will have slightly different colors, but when I take a picture of this flower with a macro lens, I seem to notice a particularly large difference. The same is true for the photo above…I don’t think it is just my imagination.
With these unanswered questions in my mind, and reflecting on the unchanged photos, this is the first installment of this year’s red spider lily walking tour. I hope there will be a second or third time, but I’ve been quite busy lately, so it may be difficult without a little luck on my side.
Equipment used: G99, Leica DG 50-200mm, Leica DG MACRO 45mm
