Yesterday afternoon I had a little floral photoshoot in my back garden. The light was good, but the wind was a bit too much for my delicate stems and nice wee vintage glasses and vases. One of my favourites ended up smashed on the ground, and then it cut my finger while I was clearing up the smithereens....
This was not conducive to a good creative mood. But then I had a moment of inspiration and brought out one of my dad's oil paintings to use as a backdrop for the two pink ranunculus that were proving the most photogenic of the flowers. I'm pleased with how this has worked - I was using a very shallow depth of field, so it's not in focus, but the colours and the loose brush strokes give the images a painterly quality that I like.
Irving Penn is one of my favourite flower photographers. I'm going to guess that he didn't spend much time shooting in his garden, with his backdrop on his knee, his flowers clutched in one hand and his camera in the other. Missed a trick there.
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