Flowers
January 2 – February 1, 2009
After working for 30 years as a black and white photographer, I bought a Nikon digital SLR camera and a 24 inch Epson wide printer in 2003, and turned my darkroom into an extension of the laundry room. Right away I loved working digitally. I loved how painless it was to make good prints, in the comfort of my office, while breathing fresh air. I also really appreciated the instant feedback you get when you shoot digitally. If the frame or the exposure is a little off, you can correct it in the next shot. I loved too how film is free, and you can shoot all you want without spending money.
When I first got the camera, I found it difficult to come up with a colorful subject in Columbus Ohio, where I live. (The American midwest: no ocean, no mountains, no architecture. Mostly, a lot of fast food resturants!) Then I thought of my wife’s flower and vegetable garden in our town’s community garden, so I went over there and started taking pictures of the flowers. Right away I photographed from a low vantage point of view, probably because l’ve photographed cats and dogs from their eye-level, to depict the world as they see it. I was also aware that most flower pictures have been taken from the top, with the photographer moving in to capture the graphic beauty of the individual flower, or in the studio, like Mapplethorpe’s pictures of flowers. Another benefit from shooting close to the ground; I can get the sky to work as a backdrop, like a color backdrop in a photographer’s studio. (Fog creates a perfect neutral gray backdrop!)
From the first flower pictures I took I really liked what I was getting. I pursued the project for 3 years. Many of the pictues I took weren’t that interesting, so the low vantage point didn’t guarantee a good picture. Sometimes it was the sky color working with the flower color that made for a good picture. Some- times it was the frame, when all the elements in it felt just right. Sometimes the weather on the background created some drama. Sometimes the picture was completed when a bug flew into it.