Orchids!

[Dennis Ernst]

Having seen a few orchids in the wild my appreciation for there rarity and beauty has grown. Where I live there are several species in the area but are really pretty rare.

So when the local orchid growers put on a show in a local mall it was all I needed to grab my camera and macro lens and stalk the jungles of the mall.

You can check it out at:

http://dennisernst31.wordpress.com

Dennis

 

[Pete Askew]

Thanks Dennis for braving the retail jungle for us! They have amazing flowers don't they? And, as you say, these days you can buy them for the living room as opposed to having to go to a botanical garden to see them. We have several in our living room that are on their 3rd or 4th year of flowering.

 

[Hamish Gill]

thats a lot of orchids!
11 and 12 are really nice photos ... especially the 11th one, really nice light!
looks as though you have got a few spots of dust on that sensor ... pollen maybe?

how do you find wordpress? ... take a look at this theme http://www.aquoid.com/news/themes/suffusion/ its much more adaptable than twenty10.
this is a site i built on suffusion http://www.adventuresinhifiaudio.com/

 

[Dennis Ernst]

That's a very cool site and I'll check it out more before long.

The mall shoot is a bit tough. All the flowers are on long tables that get shaken every time someone touches them. Of course there are a lot of people there o see them so it's try to find a spot to set your tripod then wait for them to stop moving. The light is a real mix so I often carry a small white diode flash light to add just a little white light. Flash doesn't seem to work very well but I have used a few diffuser products that can help.

You can't touch or move a flower so you can get a better shot or a better background either. Several years ago one orchid show let me come in early and I could move the pots just a little bit.

Orchids are amazing flowers and bloom for a long time. Many grow in places that you wouldn't think a plant could grow. I've seen some varieties growing high in trees with very little soil.

Next year I'm going to work with a couple growers that will let me come to their place and set up a little studio so I can control the light and background.

Dust was a problem at the mall and I had to keep brushing my lens. One lady powered her face and the powder carried all over. It was a fun shoot but no one where you had much control.

 

[Thomas brookes]

great shots dennis!!! i love orchids!!! mine is 5th generation........... well i have purchased 5 one after the other because it died!!

 

[Pete Askew]

Natural causes or was Superglue involved!

 

[Thomas brookes]

1st one to much water
2nd to little water
3rd was killed after a grousome cat attack
4th plucked to death via cat attack
5th one almost dead!!!!!!!!!! because of all the above!!

 

[Pete Askew]

Ah, natural causes! The boys in green don't need to get involved then!!

 

[George Hazelton]

Nice work!

Your shots should inspire me to hie myself to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens some weekday morning when they're not crowded. The Gardens has a conservatory filled with orchids, many in naturalistic settings. From all that I can tell the good folk there have no problems with tripod use, and I can experiment with my "new" ring flash. And the conservatory wouldn't be as hideously hot as the last several weeks have been here in Georgia. While you couldn't move your subjects, in several cases the "natural" lighting made the photo much more effective than would a ring light, for example, unless it were carefully used merely to open up deep shadows.