A stunning slipper

 

A gorgeous Yellow Lady's-slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum) springs from dry ridgetop soil deep in Shawnee State Forest. This stunning specimen towered to at least a foot and a half in height. These orchids look otherworldly, almost fake, as if created by some exceptionally talented botanical artist.

Last weekend was the Midwest Native Plant Society's Spring Safari, and a big part of that is the Saturday field trips. We managed to find many interesting plants, and animals, including this orchid and many others.

Scioto County, Ohio, May 3, 2026.

PHOTO NOTE: I made this photo with the Canon R5, and the amazing Canon EF 200mm/f/2 lens. This image was shot wide-open at f/2. The other settings were ISO 400 and 1/1250 shutter speed. Regarding the latter two settings, a bit of operator error there. I should have shut the ISO down to 100 or 200, for an even cleaner file. The shutter speed would have been much lower but still easily handholdable, which is how I was shooting at that time. Nonetheless, it's good to be your own worst critic when it comes to improving one's photography. I'm often shooting a wide range of subjects in short time periods and occasionally forget to modify my settings when switching subjects.

This lens creates perhaps the best bokeh (background quality) of any lens that I have ever worked with. It is a rarity, and not cheap. I got mine used, from a guy in New Mexico. It was the only one that I could find on the market at that time. It's not in heavy use, but when I want a crazy clean background such as above and can get reasonably close to my subject (seldom a problem with plants) I break it out. It also may be the sharpest lens I've owned.

Another great thing about the 200mm f/2 is how well it works handheld. It's fairly light and has incredible image stabilization. Plus, when shooting at wide apertures so much light comes in through that big piece of glass that even in gloomy conditions one can get reasonable if not blazing fast shutter speeds.

Handholding also allows one to use their feet as the zoom with a prime (non-zoom) lens like this. It's much faster than setting and resetting and fiddling with a tripod (although I also do LOTS of that). On this day, there was dappled sun penetrating this forest edge, and it created yellowish hotspots as seen in the upper left corner of the image. I tweaked my position so that the bright hotspots were not directly behind the yellow slipper flower - that wouldn't have been a great look. Also, I wanted the bract and sepals subtending the pouch-like flower to stand apart from one another. Taking those extra moments to carefully police the background and avoid potentially distracting objects or abrupt variations in light, as well as placing your subject at the best possible angle, usually makes for a much better photo. I want my subject to be the star of the photograph and not competing against other extraneous subjects for the viewer's attention.