Quote of the day:
“But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine.” — Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
My lovely soft pink peonies are in bloom. I’ve spent a couple of days admiring and photographing their soft, seductive beauty.
As always, I find that creating a photograph that expresses how I see flowers takes hard work. It surprised me when I first started photographing flowers. I would make hundreds of photos and not one would express the beauty I saw.
Leave things out
I’ve learned not to try to show the entire flower or bouquet of flowers. Instead I look for shapes, colors, and light.
There is a profound significance in leaving things out. What is not said is more important than what is said.” — Eugene Henrigel
Simplifying, leaving out parts of the flower, looking carefully at the edges of the frame to ensure nothing draws the eye out and away from the primary subject of the photo, are all ways that I convey the story of beauty that I see.
Let go of preconceived ideas
It’s easy to look at a flower you’ve photographed before and say to yourself, “Been there, done that,” and move on without stopping to really look at it. Even I succumb to that kind of thinking. I’ve photographed my pink peonies each year for several years.
This year I resisted photographing them again. It wasn’t until I picked a bunch of them for a friend who was visiting that I was once more seduced by their lush soft beauty.
I hope you enjoy their intricate elegance as much as I do.
May you walk in beauty.
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