In my previous post (“Patterns”) I said that I am now much more likely to photographically decompose the subject and focus in on specific elements of a flower rather than the flower itself. While this is true, it doesn’t mean that I have totally abandoned flower portraits. I still work a few into almost every flower shoot. But the ratio is probably 10:1 tight close-ups to portraits.
When I do cut flower portraits, I generally like to use a black background. It’s personal preference but I just think that black sets off the flower color better than almost any other color background that I have tried. That’s what I did with this portrait of a Gerbera Daisy.
But recently while viewing a video presentation by one of my favorite nature photographers, Tony Sweet, I was inspired to try something else the next time I set up a cut flower session. He set up bunches of flowers and then he pulled out a single bloom and placed it in the foreground so the background was the bunches of multi-colored flowers. By separating the single bloom from the bunches by enough distance, opening up the aperture to reduce the depth of field, and focusing on the foreground flower; he created a wonderful portrait against a beautifully diffuse, multi-colored background. That’s something I have to try. Keep an eye out here for results of my experimenting over weeks to come.
In the meantime, here is that Gerbera portrait that I promised.
(This image is Copyright Ed Vatza 2009. Usage without my prior written approval is prohibited.)