An Orchid By Any Other Name

(April 19th) Today I had the opportunity of going to the Ann Arbor Orchid Festival. They had a small room in the University of Michigan Botanical Gardens set up with an array of dazzling orchids for one day only. They let photographers in for one hour early to take pictures, which certainly wasn't enough time to work through all the specimens. Orchids are very strange looking flowers.

One of the best things about orchids is that they are so otherwordly. Photographically it makes them great to abstract. I was going in to finally get some use out of the new macro lens that I hadn't had a chance to use during the winter. The lens is great - so sharp. But after I took the photos home I learned that it has no depth of field - even when shooting f11, there is so little DOF.

Working the festival in an hour was quite a challenge. I am beginning to think that photography is never easy :) There were lights set up and so many flowers packed together into the single room. On top of this, you certainly couldn't touch anything, so isolating your subject could be quite difficult. But when you did on a flower like this one, it was so rewarding.

With no visible horizon, it was up to you and your composition to determine how lines should flow and groups should be made. Also, choosing the right angle and frame was critical. The flowers have so much geometry though, I was trying to learn to let it dictate the shot.

Some of the group shots gave a certain depth to the image that the solo shots lacked. The plane of focus was so critical with the DOF of the macro lens. Since I was shooting at f11 and sometimes f38, a tripod was essential. I had some trouble when I did try some hand-held shots for testing purposes. This is something I am going to have to figure out before I take the lens to capture butterflies like I want.

I did take some traditional, single full flower shots, but these pictures are a little boring for me. Orchids are mesmerizing, it doesn't seem right to treat them traditionally.

The colors of some of the flowers were amazing. I did notice that the colors changed dramatically if they were lit normally or by a flash - sometimes this made it look like an entirely different flower. I think this has to do with the UV patterns many of these flowers use to attract insect pollinators.