Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Yes, it does look in danger of drooping over. But if you are documenting its rise and fall…that’s all part of it.
Emerging Amaryllis
- Thread starter Gary R. Smith
- Start date
Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
I did a project on a Cala lily on RPF many years ago: https://realphotographersforum.com/threads/calla-lily-robs-daily-blog.20355/
Gary R. Smith
Well-Known Member
The forgotten Amaryllis (6 days later - no flash)
Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Wow. In its prime. Beautiful.
Gary R. Smith
Well-Known Member
Actually, there's a 4th bloom in the works. I'll likely need to shoot that top down.
Gianluca Drago
Well-Known Member
This accompanying journey by @Rob MacKillop of a Calla flower is beautiful even read today, long after it had been published (it was still March, but 9 years ago). It is peppered with literary, photographic, and artistic quotations and full of humor (and languishing sadness), especially in the interaction between @Rob MacKillop and @Pete Askew. To me, the calla lilies evoke other memories: when I was a not so young husband, in the spring, every spring, I had to lower myself into the waters of the stream at the border of my mother-in-law's property, to cut the long stems at the base (a huge crop it was, or so it seemed to me, destined to adorn the houses of my mother-in-law's friends, relatives and acquaintances), while I was sneezing like a mad horse in a fit of allergy with my hands stained black with the poor creatures' pigments, at the same time being stung by terrible spring gnats. I still have a few photos of those calla lilies, but they can't compete with Rob's or Mapplethorpe's ones. Rob's project is also a nice sampling of different photographic styles and techniques and ends with a photo that is an evanescent simulacrum of a photo (or a flower) accompanied by the comment "This is not a flower" which I don't know whether it was a reference to Magritte's smoking pipe or Monty Python's dead parrot.
Last edited:
Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Thanks, Gianluca. I was thinking Magritte, but Monty Python would have been acceptable too. I enjoyed that project, and can see how it helped shape some of my later photographical practice and ideas. I have never, though, brought it all together into a cohesive whole. It was, after all, secondary to my musical life. Now I am retiring (two weeks to go!) I might try to do that…whatever it is.
Gianluca Drago
Well-Known Member
In my opinion those photos, that post, that dialogue in the forum, would be a good subject for an article. The script is already written. Congratulations on your retirement, I have to wait two more years (if the new laws that come don't raise the age to 90).
Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Good idea. I might extract and edit it for my website.
Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Apologies to Gary for crashing his thread. Normal service should now resume!
Gary R. Smith
Well-Known Member
No worries...
Gary R. Smith
Well-Known Member
We have four open blooms this afternoon.
