Making Something Out of Nothing by F.M. Kearney

                              
One of the hardest parts of creative photography is trying to figure out how to make an ordinary subject look extraordinary. It's knowing when to stop and take notice of something that most people would simply pass by without giving it a second glance – that is, if they even glance at it in the first place. Such was the case when I was in the New York Botanical Garden recently. I was there to shoot the roses, but it was early and the rose garden wasn't open yet. On my way there I passed through the hydrangea area, which was in full bloom. I had seen hydrangea many times before in the past, but I never considered photographing them. I could never figure out how to shoot the big, rounded blooms in an interesting or creative way. They don't exhibit any discernible pattern from a distance, and there's really nothing special about them up close either. Had the rose garden been open I certainly would have passed them by myself. As it was, I walked back and forth in front of them several times before finally deciding to stop and give them a serious look.

The first shot I did was a close up of a single bloom. Unlike the other blooms, the tiny flowers at the tip formed an almost perfect circle. With my camera mounted on a tripod, I composed a head-on shot using a limited depth of field. This allowed the flowers in the front to remain sharp as the rest of the

bloom behind them gradually morphed into a billowy field of white. I then did another composition where I slightly offset one bloom behind another one. I used a bit more depth of field to render to foreground bloom completely sharp, while keeping the one in the rear out of focus. However, since both blooms were the same color, I didn't feel as though that would produce the degree of separation I wanted between the two. I outfitted my flash with a red gel and hand-held it far off-camera to the left, aimed only at the bloom in the background. I reduced its power output to create the illusion that the bloom was catching a few rays of warm sunlight (as opposed to being hit with a red light), while the one in the foreground remained in the shade. These differences in lighting and depth of field created just the right amount of separation I needed to make the photo work.

When roses aren't available, it sometimes pays to stop and smell (or shoot) the hydrangeas.

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F.M. Kearney is a fine art nature photographer, specializing in unique floral and landscape images. To see more of his work, please visit www.starlitecollection.com.