Macro Florals

Macro lenses and flowers have always been a winning combination for photographers, though it has been a focus that I have come to slowly over my near-twenty years of photography (sometime like the way that it took me more than a decade to make my first really intentional sunset image!). As I find more and more of my life being focused on photography (not just image making itself, but also teaching about image making), the more I find that photographing flowers is something I really enjoy, though I have no real outlet for the images (one side effect of working so long with a single subject, as I have with the Nude, is that people expect only that kind of image from you, meaning every other subject becomes "Oh, that's not even a Nude"...)

Digital original

I think that one of the most seductive element of photographing flowers for me is that they are so different from working with the Nude. Apart from the obvious fact that flowers can be photographed with ease in the middle of a crowded park in the centre of a city, they also call for a totally different approach technically, while still relying on many of the same photographic skills.

Digital original

These images were made during a photo course field trip, where students are given the chance to stretch their photographic legs, and apply what we have learned din the classroom in the field. Much of my time during these field trips is spent working with the students, but usually as the day settles down and students start hitting their stride, I have time to photograph as well, and it is during these periods that the flowers come into their own. Even with only five minutes to spare, I can usually coax a successful composition out of the smallest patch of colour, with even a single flower presenting enough possibility for an entire image!

Digital original

I don't know if flower photographs will ever be more than just a relaxing side-subject, in comparison to my work with the Nude, but at the most basic level, I am enjoying photographing them, and ultimately, that is all that matters.