- 01 FLORA 4 | Red tulips outdoors
These flower "still life" images show iris, lilies, tulips, daffodils and dandelions growing in a garden, laid out flat on a surface or arranged in a container: some are dying blooms or just dried petals. Set both indoors and outdoors, all were shot in natural light against a black fabric background to concentrate colour and remove distractions. IMAGE: This modest group of tulips has flowered like this for over forty years, drawn towards the light from their home below a timber fence.
- 02 FLORA 4 | Tulips in a vase
A visitor brought a small bunch of tulips which, after a couple of days in water, began to curve their stems. I set them in sunlight in front of an upstairs window to photograph. More heads would have given greater scope but combining images was an interesting experiment.
- 03 FLORA 4 | Tulips growing in the garden
This is a detail from a group of tulips growing in the garden under a late morning sun. I liked the subtle luminosity of their colour and the intricacy of lines created by the petals’ frilled edges. They are more elaborately formed than the veterans in Image 1 but they have not maintained this elegance and vigour for long. Black fabric isolated them from other border plants and morning sunshine created shade variations through back lighting and cast shadows.
- 04 FLORA 4 | A single tulip head
Discussing tulips with a couple of stately home gardeners I was advised to replace these more decorative varieties after a short period and not to expect them to last as long as simpler traditional varieties. They were clearing ‘simple’ tulips growing along a rose border by cutting them at ground level, leaving the bulbs in the ground to grow again the following Spring.
- 05 FLORA 4 | Purple iris in the garden
I like iris for their vigorous sword leaves and tall stems carrying elaborately formed flower heads, here brought to life by morning sunshine. Some grow naturally in tight clumps whilst others, like these, throw up more widely spaced flower stalks.
- 06 FLORA 4 | Purple iris after rain
A flower head with raindrops under an overcast sky contrasts with the previous image. I only have space for quite small iris beds but public parks and stately homes sometimes offer planted borders. The blooms do not last beyond a very few days. The plants require sunlight on their ground level rhizomes to help set ‘buds’ for new growth and flowers in the following season.
- 07 FLORA 4 | White lilies dying in a vase indoors
Buying white lilies in bud offers lasting visual interest. Individual flowers unfurl from green through cream to a sometimes brilliant white accented by brilliant orange-red stamens. As they age they quite often begin shedding petals and stamens. This particular bunch held together for longer than most and I made a number of images of its gradual demise. The leaves changed too against the white glaze of the vase. The petals curled and lost their brilliance as they began to dry.
- 08 FLORA 4 | Lilies fading
These lily photographs were made in daylight in front of an upstairs window against a fabric background. I prefer white flowers for indoor display but like to see any colours standing in a garden. The variations in structure, form, colour and detail seems wide
- 09 FLORA 4 | Dying lilies detail
The petal veining that’s almost invisible in the fresh bloom emerges in delicate detail as it declines and thins in early decay. The dried petals and stamens create a delicate sense of touch and quiet sound.
- 10 FLORA 4 | A monochrome image
I wanted to include a black and white image in the group, here with a slight hint of deep brown. I preferred working with these flowers in decline rather than at their peak. I have not explored monochrome flower imagery to any extent even though it’s been on my project list for some time: perhaps next year?
- 11 FLORA 4 | Detail from two white lilies
The lily petals in the earlier images were quite smooth in surface. Those on this pair of flowers were much thicker and more textured, suggesting watercolour paper. Their stamen pollen can strongly mark clothing when brushed against or surfaces on which they drop.
- 12 FLORA 4 | A detail from a ground arrangement of daffodils
Outdoors under a lightly overcast sky these daffodils were grounded in layers against black fabric. It offers an alternative to the vase of more traditional blooms in Image 14.
- 13 FLORA 4 | Daffodils outdoors
Two combined exposures of the same grounded flower arrangement shown in Image 12.
- 14 FLORA 4 | Daffodils in a vase outdoors
Two outdoor photographs of frilled single trumpet daffodils in a vase were combined in this image made out of doors. The narrow cylindrical vase pulled the stems close together to further emphasise the delicate textures of the blooms and increased the range of the shades of yellow.
- 15 FLORA 4 | Dandelion flower heads in a bowl of water
Dandelions are one of the most prolific and conspicuous wild flowers around my home. Their yellow ribbons mark roadside verges and sometimes they manage to colonise areas in old grass fields before it’s used for grazing animals. After playing around with ideas this is the first image that I thought had a creative spark. Cut heads were floated in a glass kitchen mixing bowl resting on black fabric: the circular yellow frame of refracted daylight was an unexpected enhancement.
- 16 FLORA 4 | Red peony petals
Peonies are native to Southern Europe, Asia and Western North America in shrub and tree forms. Its principal use in China from some 3,000 years ago was medicinal before gaining high favour as an ornamental plant during the Sui and T’ang Dynasties (605-906). The peony has also been a motif in the art of China, Korea and Japan, particularly in ceramics. These are freshly fallen petals of an intense crimson collected from the ground to be photographed and brought indoors to dry.
- 17 FLORA 4 | Dried peony petals
The collected petals were spread out on newspaper to dry. Photographing a mound of them in plan and profile was the simplest and most effective way to create images. The white flashes are the petal base points. The camera used has a liking for red and I found it difficult to colour match both in an out of doors. This last pair of images was made in daylight through an upstairs window.
- 18 FLORA 4 | Dried peony petals
The petals are displayed in a large and globular glass vase. Dried, they lost their original intense red and revealed hints of magenta. After a couple of years indoors in subdued lighting the colour shades include brown. They are beautiful flowers on a large and maturing plant but like the iris the blooms have a short life. Preserving some of their petals offers a reminder of their former beauty. (See FLORA 1, FLORA 2, FLORA 3 for more flower photography.)