I really find the Lily family to be, not only beautiful but a great flower to photograph. It comes in a number of different variaties and colors, all of which are beautiful. I started off doing Easter Lilies a few years ago (South Western Oregon is the Easter Lily capital of the world) and fell in love with them. I then branched out to other variaties of Lilies because the Easter Lily was only around for a few weeks. I do most of my photography on cut flowers under controlled lighting and keep my eyes open when ever I see a flower stand that has interesting looking flowers.
Here are a few images I've done of the Stargazer and Yellow Lily.
This one is a Stargazer. It was taken while laying on a front surface mirror (most mirrors reflect from the back of the glass, front surface mirrors refect from the front surface so there is no double image).
And this is a panorama image made up of 5 individual shots of this group of Yellow Lilies. You can't really see it here, but the full size image really shows the detail of the flowers.
Name: Janet Colvin Z8~Beaumont~Southeast Texas Proud member of Cubits.org
Mike. These are beautiful. I'm on the BlackBerry and can't see well enough to.ttpe. Just want you to know I saw them and can't wait to. See them full si2E when I get home.
Name: Janet Colvin Z8~Beaumont~Southeast Texas Proud member of Cubits.org
WOW!!! They are even prettier on a full size monitor! Awesome job Mike. I used to have a stargazer lily and took lots of photos of it too. Mine didn't turn out nearly as good as yours did though.
The whole key is lighting... well, lighting and flowers that follow directions well.
Most of these were all done in a darkened room with a black background and the lights set up so they shined just on the flower. The mirror shot was tricky because I wanted to get the flower reflection but not any reflection of the lights, the ceiling or the edge of the background. And the fact that any dust that settled on it was very apparent. Even as careful as I was in not stiring up any more dust than I had to, I still did more dust spoting on the image than I had since back in my film days.
One of them is over done? Oh, you mean the one that's a bit past it's bloom.
I found my mirror at a place that sells mirrors for people that make Kaleidoscpoes, although I forget where I bought mine. It's 16"x12" and cost around $25 if I remember right. I believe Delphi has them as does AllStainedGlass, Edmund's Scientific and a bunch of other places. Some are considered Grade A and some Grade B with the Grade B being the cheaper one. You have to be careful with them as they can scratch (since the reflective material is on top). I use a micro fiber cloth to lightly clean it and then I keep it in a protective cloth so it doesn't get dusty. If you do a google seach on first surface or front surface mirrors, you will get a lot of hits.
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