The Season For Peonies

Every spring I look forward to photographing peonies in a still life. This year I decided to do something different. I attended a Peony Floral Class at The London Plane with my sweet friend, Kristen, who is also an avid photographer. It was nice to share the mutual understanding of needing to photograph everything in sight. 

There was a plethora of peonies in different colors and phases in bloom to choose from. We learned how to make a floral arrangement. First starting with a color theme, building a foundation with foliage, using peonies as the main flower and then adding accent flowers. Sounds easy enough but much harder to do and even harder to achieve the perfectly imperfect wild look. 

I forgot to bring my camera with me and ended up using my iPhone. I took a lot more photos that I wanted to share here however I lost them all while trying to backup my photos. I was able to salvage this photo I sent to my sisters.

Photographing Peonies

2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017

Resemblance to Reality

Here it is: my annual still life shoot of peonies I photographed with my Pentax. I showed Ian the photos I took and he was a little surprised, "They don't look like something you'd shoot." That got me thinking two things: one; I may be getting closer to establishing my style (yay!!!) and two; it's not what I would normally go for but I wanted to try something different. I wanted these photographs to portray the reality of our spring. It was brutal, it was harsh and then one day the sun came out and summer was here. Completely passing up spring and showing all the damage it had done. If not to mother nature than to human nature specifically in Seattle. I was about to lose it at some point. Snow in March? Unheard of!

Just like I do every year I picked up these peonies at the market and brought them home to watch them bloom. Except they never fully bloomed. And I couldn't figure out why. They had sufficient light and water and the apartment was warm. Over a span of a week they began to opened up, wilted and then fell apart. Again, it has been one strange spring. I thought about going back to the market to buy some bloomed ones just so I could photograph them but I stopped myself. Not everything has to be mask with beauty. Bruises, imperfection and growing pains should also see the light of day. They deliver something different; more meaningful I think. It's messy and it's real.

Never Ending Love Affair with Peonies

This past spring was the forth consecutive year I’ve photographed peonies. During that time, I was greeted by darkness when I returned home from work, making it hard to squeeze time to photographing in natural light. My beau suggested we invest in studio lighting to help with my dilemma; he could also use the lighting for when he's painting and so we did.

So far artificial light is proving to be a beast (I really should look into attending a workshop on this subject). Lately, I’ve been really drawn to direct light. I love it for so many reasons but particularly for the moodiness, drama and beautiful shadows it creates. This photoshoot was inspired by the very talented Gentl and Hyers’s Botanicals found as a part their portfolio. I came across their work through Alice Gao, another amazing photographer I admire. I love the way they all use light in their photographs and I often spent time looking at their work, especially still-life, to study the lighting.

For about a week, I got to enjoy a dozen of peonies sitting in my living room. Everyday I'd watched them unfold petal by petal opening up as they do that so well in the warmth of the apartment. When they fully bloomed, I pulled them part to photograph.










Peonies // Photography Notes

Direct light, from the source of artificial light in this case, was difficult. My challenge being the ability to balance providing sufficient light all around while trying not to blow the exposure on the areas that were in the direct light. It can be harsh shooting with direct light and my goal was to achieve the perfect balance between the two.

I also played around with diffused light and found that it added a softness to my photographs which I equally loved (image on the right) but I can't decide if that's still considered direct lighting?

All technicality aside, I am perfectly happy photographing peonies all day; they are just so beautiful!

Past Photoshoots with Peonies:

 2013 // On Black and White Film 

2014 // On Digital 

2015 // Dried Up Peonies

First Day of Spring

Last week CNN reported Seattle had 17 consecutive days of rain and that's when I realized my moodiness may be due to Seasonal Affective Disorder. Usually my beau and I go somewhere warm for the winter but this year we opted for Europe and then my girls' trip was in Chicago; I've yet to feel warm temperatures and sun on my skin this year. I'm sure the long hours at the office and the lack of time to go on runs are also adding to my frustration.

This morning I woke up excited to celebrate Spring but was quickly disappointed to see the rain did not let up. Over brunch I complained to my beau about how fed up I was with the cold, rain and Seattle. 'I need a vacation!' I cried. He quickly reminded me about how lucky we are to live in Seattle: the east coast is about to experience a snow storm while we have rain and Seattle has the most beautiful summer. I know he's absolutely right; I will see all this greatness right after I get that vacation!

As we were unwinding at home tonight the rain stopped, the clouds disappeared perfectly in time for us to watch the sunset. As it was setting below the Puget Sound it casted a beautiful glow across the city giving me hope for more days with daylight and warm temperatures. I know it's only a matter of time before I kick this winter blues' ass! And booking that vacation ASAP would also really help.

Happy Spring!

Night Changes

Most of my editing and blog posts are done right before bed. I wonder if that has any influence on my recent sway towards dark moody images such as these black and white peonies I shot a couple of months ago. These were taken on my digital camera which I rarely touch anymore and it makes complete sense as I was just trying to tweak them to look like film prints.  

So I'm sitting here editing while listening to the Pop Chill Playlist on Spotify when it plays this catchy song that I automatically start to like so I check out the playlist and it turns out to be a One Direction song! I tried really hard not to like it but I can't help it. It's so sweet!!! So I'm accepting it and dedicating this post to it.

We're only getting older baby 
And I've been thinking about it lately 
Does it ever drive you crazy 
Just how fast the night changes? 
Everything that you've ever dreamed of 
Disappearing when you wake up 
But there's nothing to be afraid of 
Even when the night changes 
It will never change me and you

Midnight Flower Studies

Post production is my least favorite part of the photography workflow which is also my primary excuse for not blogging as much as I would like. When I shoot, I usually don't have the end in mind. I just shoot what I see and feel within the moment. These roses were taken awhile back. I picked them apart to photograph right before I was going to throw them out. They were bright orange, vibrant and lush. I used the cushion to my leather couch as a backdrop (hey, you gotta get creative with what you've got right?). At the time I wanted to capture those details that made up how bright and beautiful these rose were but once I was in post production I couldn't do it justice so I dismissed them completely.

I was cleaning up my files tonight when I found them. I still think the way I tried editing them before wasn't the best so I started playing with it again. Now I think I have it down to a look that feels more... me. Of course the goal would be to work towards being able to execute my vision from the beginning to end... but what if that vision changes? It took me awhile to find what felt right, what felt like me and I guess that's why they say, 'it's the journey that counts.'