When rainy weekends keep you from field tripping to the Botanical Gardens you bring the flower inspiration home. One of our local coffee cafes’ ‘J. Ting’ sells flowers as well as handmade soaps and candles, and other beautiful handcrafted items. They also run workshops in candle making and soap making. Anyway I digress. My eye is always drawn to the flowers when we pass. Every now and then I treat myself to a bunch. On this occasion the yellow chrysanthemum caught my eye. As I held the flowers and approached the counter my mind was already getting distracted with ideas. Along with the Chrysanthemum’s, statice, baby’s breath or solidago and magnolia foliage formed the bunch. One bunch of flowers endless inspiration.

Initially I left the bunch in tack and took a several shots in the studio using the camera on tripod and the flowers arranged in my Foldia photo booth. For a short window of time the next morning was clear and sunny. And, the wet bark of our Mulberry Tree was catching the early morning light and providing an interesting backdrop for individual flowers. No fancy clamps, just balanced the flowers on the branches of the tree and moved around the tree taking shots from various angles with the camera mostly on tripod.

I totally enjoy my field trips and in fact most of my images are captured outside, having a bunch of flowers provides different opportunities, an opportunity to dive deeper and study the subject. Some things will work, many shots don’t but every image is an opportunity to learn and grow.

When exploring a subject deeper I observe and take phots from different angles, use different lens, attach the extension tubes or play with lighting, focal length and filters. Weather permitting I also take the subject outside and take more images at different times of the day.

There will be another post shortly featuring images of their decaying beauty.

– One bunch of flowers endless inspiration –