Flowers

17/01/09

I bought my first macro lens two years ago. It was Sigma 50 mm macro lens and when I tried it for the first time I couldn’t get enough of it. This lens introduced me to a completely different, wonderful and weird-looking world. I have been hooked on macro photography for life. I now use the 105 mm Sigma macro lens, the Nikon D300 camera and I haven’t looked back since.

Most of us don’t look too closely at flowers, examine their individual parts, the textures, the colours, the shape, we rather view them as a whole. But a flower viewed through a macro lens is incredibly fascinating. Flowers are magnificent creations of nature and my aim is to portray their beauty. When I photograph flowers, I take it slow and I use my tripod on many occasions. Before I decide to photograph a particular flower, I always ask myself these questions: What is the flower’s main attraction? Is it the colour? The texture? The shape? The weirdness? Does it look better portrayed alone or in a group? Once I make my decision, I concentrate on the chosen element and experiment with different angles and viewpoints. I also try to evoke emotions with my flower images. Sometimes I purposely choose a flower that is imperfect or that looks fragile. Such flowers can be very photogenic and unique subjects to photograph.

When shooting flowers, I use the camera’s manual settings and I focus manually. Because of the close focus, I find that the camera auto-focus never focuses on the right spot so I avoid using it. I frequently use a tripod to ensure the best possible sharpness.

I photograph flowers both outside as well as at home. If I photograph at home, I never use the artificial light; it is always a window light because I find it more flattering. It is important to use some light reflectors to even the light and get detail in shadowed areas. Reflectors can be easily and cheaply made at home. I wrap a kitchen foil around a paper cardboard, it makes a fabulous reflector. A sheet of pure white paper also gives a nice subtle reflection.

Macro photography is not forgiving and will record every tiny detail, even the one that I didn’t notice when taking the image. A small piece of dirt can ruin a nice image but this can be easily cloned out in Photoshop.