Tuesday, March 27, 2012

At The Orchid Show

.
Orchid Show At MoBot 4

A late winter delight in this town is the orchid show at the sumptuous Missouri Botanical Garden. I managed to make it there on Sunday, closing day.

Flowers are hardly everyday subject matter for me but, hey, the show is a good opportunity for blog material. The challenge is how to avoid the banal. The example of Robert Mapplethorpe comes to mind (hmmm - I don't remember seeing Number 4 before now). It was way too crowded to use a tripod. These pictures were taken with an 85 mm prime lens and varying lengths of extension tubes. Apertures ranged from f 2.8 to f 11. Keeping the center sharp was often a matter of holding the camera within a range of a few millimeters.

The orchids ranged from subdued to sensual. Some were unabashedly erotic. We'll see a few more in days to come.

Orchid Show At MoBot 2

9 comments:

Olivier said...

deux belles macros, surtout la premiere. c'est le printemps, les photographes sortent leurs objectifs macros ;))

lewi14@gmail.com said...

I like orchids very much. What wonderful and gentle flowers! But I haven't the notorious "green thumb" related to orchids. Therefore I only enjoy photos of them. Well done, Bob!

Stefan Jansson said...

Two nice flower macro photos here.

brattcat said...

these are superb.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

These are gorgeous Bob, I actually think the first one IS a bit sensual and the second one a tad erotic, so heaven knows what's coming next!!

Pat said...

I think the second one is erotic...and so beautiful. I cannot grow any plants well, but my friend is a champ at orchids.

cieldequimper said...

The French word envoûtant comes to mind. Can't find a suitable translation for it...

Unknown said...

WOW! Stunning shots, Bob.

Speedway said...

Lovely shots of lovely plants! I liked very much the Mapplethorpe photos of flowers, too. Somewhere, I have pictures of tulips, taken by Richard Avedon, I think, that show that flower at its most frilly and exotic. But there are none on his website, so maybe I was wrong.

But looking forward to more of your orchids, sir.