Calla Lillies

Every year I grow Calla Lillies in pots in my garden. They are now taking over and I need to re-pot at the end of this summer. Some have a purplish tinge to their veins and interior and others are deep orange.

Each year I pick one to photograph always looking for new angles or lighting. This year I use a 100mm lense which is often the one I use for portraits. It enables me to take shots pretty close up, the only drawback being the extremely narrow depth of field. This means that I then have to decide where I lay the emphasis on the focus for the flower.

Whilst I love the colour of this particular lilly I also happen to enjoy them being reduced to mono so there is always a debate inside my head about which might look best left in colour and which converted to mono. 

I usually use a single low light source from one side and slightly about the flower - a classic Rembrandt lighting technique in portraits. I don't feel that I have pushed this as far as I might yet but I'll keep trying. After all John Blakemore has been photographing tulips for over 24 years...