Costco sells seasonal stuff before the season begins. A week or so ago, in the midst of the constant parade of wintry atmospheric rivers that have beset the Bay Area, I welcomed spring with a helleborus that I planted in the garden, then picked up a calla lily that caught my attention. Here it is on our front deck.
I’ve always loved photographing flowers. The calla lily in the natural light brought on by rainy skies gave me the opportunity to focus on just one. I’ve posted them all on my website, but in my blog I’m taking a few of them and describing the process I use to create these images. Here is the link to the images if you want to skip the blog, which, of course you shouldn’t.
I set the plant on a stool in front of a sliding glass panel, attached my Nikon D850 with a 105mm f2.8 macro lens to a tripod and just looked. And looked. I rotated the plant, raised and lowered the tripod, moved closer, moved farther away, changed focus, and tried to find images that might strike an emotional reaction. Some photographs were taken wide open, throwing the great part of the image out of focus. Here’s one.
The two white circles on the tip are water droplets.
In our garden that Tim and Lisa Goodman planted in 2008 there are no straight lines. The stone wall in the back of the yard was mistakenly constructed as a rectangle; Tim ordered it rebuilt as a curve. Curves create more than harmony. There’s a satisfying sense of peace and serenity in curves that can’t be matched in straight lines.
And even small depths of field, which bring little sharpness to the image, don’t distract.
Curves prevail
Another technique I use is called “focus stacking.” Several images, say between 10 and 20, are taken from the same position, but each with a slightly different focus. When the images are aligned and blended the combined focal sharpness is revealed. It’s a sandwich. In the next image I wanted most of the flower to be sharp. Ten images, aligned and blended, made that possible. I love the way the light hits just the one flower, the contrast between the colors in it and the green stems of its neighbors.
Same flower. Just misted it.
I added another flower, then in post-processing added a light glow to the flowers. Are we trying to create a two-dimensional exact replica of the thing, or are we creating an image that is meant to evoke a response, an emotion? It’s the latter in this case. I’m also struck by the way the flower at the bottom ties to the other two.
I photographed these over three wet days. This was one of the last. Focus stacking, perhaps close to 20 images. One of the points of attention is at the top, including the way the light on the darkest part of the curling end reflects the light. A second point is midway, the smaller flower. Again, all is curve.
This is the same flower as in the first image. Focus stacking and mist, I hoped the drop wouldn’t drop. I have six more images on my web site, but you get the picture. Get it? You get the picture? Oh, never mind.
