A small set of botanical still lifes I made over the last couple of days.

This image is inspired by low-key still life images such as Kenro Izu’s “Still Life 678” (Kenro Izu Still Life 678, 1999, n.d.). I used a black background and positioned my camera’s tripod above the flower for this composition. I manually focused on the flower’s pistil and purposefully underexposed the image by one and a half stops to enhance the low-key effect further. I wanted very flat light for this image, so I only used ambient light in my studio at sunset, hence the long exposure time. I am pleased with the resulting image. I like the soft, slightly out-of-focus outside petals - they are quite dark but still visible and provide a smooth transition from the brighter flower to the background’s complete darkness.

For this image, I decided to shoot a single flower in a vase, with the rim of the vase catching the light and creating a reflective element. I wanted the entire vase to be out of focus, so I elected to use the fastest aperture available on my 120mm macro lens, which is f/3.5. I used a constant light at 11 o’clock and set a reflector at about 5 o’clock to increase the intensity of the light reflection at the right side of the vase’s rim. Overall, I am pleased with the resulting image. I enjoy the composition and the subtle effect that the reflective, out-of-focus glass element brings to the photograph. 

This photo was shot in my home studio with ambient light paired with one strobe. I shot this image with an aperture of f/5.6 so that a good amount of the flower would be in focus, but with some leaves and the stem going out of focus. This shallow depth of field creates an aesthetic mood that I enjoy for these flower studies. The strobe was set at about 4 o’clock and at 1/8th strength. I selected a darker flower paired with an off-white background to create dramatic contrast. The motivation behind this image, and indeed the motivation behind this series of images, is to create still-life images that evoke both beauty and the passage of time. Flowers are, after all, a good representation of transcience.

This photograph also pairs a darker flower with an off-white background and was shot in my home studio. The natural light was quite dim and coming from 6 o’clock. I paired the natural light with a strobe at 5 o’clock to create a front lighting effect with dramatic shadows at the bottom of the flower. I elected to get the entire flower in focus for this image, so I used a slow aperture. This required a long exposure time, even when using a strobe. The challenge of creating this image was deciding what lighting effect to implement. I moved the strobe around before settling on this dramatic front lighting effect.