Flora

I have never quite understood why photographers sometimes seem to bemoan wet weather. Apart from great reflections outdoors and multiple opportunities to show the world in a different light (literally) it gives us an opportunity to turn our attention to indoor shooting, whether in a studio or at home. 

At these times I find flowers incredibly useful and have even taken enough shots to get a whole exhibition out of them.

However just taking a shot of a single flower or a bunch of them is a challenge if you want to make people look twice. Floral pictures are two a penny.  My aim is often to either shoot detail, light them differently or find an unusual way to display them.

In the case of the carnations above I was in the studio and it was wet. I'd bought the flowers on my way in determined to do something. I had a strong steady studio light and a round but shallow glass bowl. I filled the bowl with water and cut the heads off the flowers so they floated but crammed the space then placed the bowl on top of the light, correcting the strength of the light as I went along. The camera was on a boom directly over the bowl.

I was more than happy with the results and one of the sequence (not shown here) eventually won me a prize in an exhibition - so result from wet weather and a bit of thought and experimentation. 

So remember, if you want to get your work seen, think differently...