Fine Art Photoblog

© 2008 Dawn LeBlanc. All Rights Reserved (see policies). Contact for Use.

I brought this calla lily into the house in the late afternoon after it was demolished in a hail storm, and managed to salvage only this one bloom. However, I was totally unsure what to do with it. Calla lilies are beautiful flowers with wonderful form and structure that make for great graphic impact, but alas, next to the rose, they are likely the most photographed of all flowers. So what to do, what to do? I didn’t want it to be trite, or cute, or pretty–I wanted to do something different that I hadn’t already seen a million times.

So I mounted my camera on the tripod with a macro lens, and put the flower on a black background so the sun was hitting it through the window. I moved around the flower, starting off with an attempt to frame the whole of the bloom, but as I moved, I noticed a shape emerge–a common enough shape–that of a female figure. Even better, the light was shining thru the bloom, illuminating all of its beautiful lines and structure, in effect tracing out this shape.

This is why I’m so entranced with macros–you can see things through a macro lens you would not notice in real life. They can make the ordinary extraordinary. For those interested in macros, take your time and move around your subject. You may well be amazed at what you find.