Day 211: getting busy amongst the bees

Another fantastic Robert Canis workshop but this time instead of me having to transport myself to deepest Kent, he was in my 'hood, Kew Gardens. Normally I pore over train timetables, maps and dig out local taxi cab numbers, whereas for this workshop I can merely catch a bus or two.

I was convinced we would be dogged by bad weather, the various weather apps I'd consulted assured me that would be the case. But, the weather gurus were wrong and we were treated to a fine, summery day.

 

 

 

We mustered outside the infamous palm house and headed inside. Kew Gardens are having a whole exhibition about spice at the moment and amongst the ginger and peppercorns there are some hibiscus type flowers that catch my eye.

 

Now we have our eye in, we work outside capturing a few context shots with the palm house and museum in the background and flowers in the foreground.

 

 

 

 

Then we troop over towards the rockeries. Almost immediately I figure might be able to add some new entries to my bee portfolio. Very quickly I rack up a few hundred photos that feature bees, bits of bees, or busy bees' bottoms buzzing off to the next flower. For the final location we head towards the walled gardens where of course, I stumble across more bees plus some stunning vibrant beds of flower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now I must sign up for the Kew Autumn Photography Walk too.

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Day 126: channelling Mapplethorpe at Kew

It's the second day of the Heather Angel macro flower workshop at Kew Gardens and after a wet and windy night we're back in our classroom. The lovely old wooden sash windows are struggling against the ferocious gusts, we're going to be challenged today keeping everything pin sharp. We learn about focus stacking and how it can really elevate your macro photography. If I can procure one of the focus slider tripod thingies for a bargain price, I'd be tempted to give it a go.

Before taking our own photographs we start off looking at more inspirational images, and there was an old favourite of mine. I've always been a fan of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography since first becoming aware of his work over twenty years ago. I'd come across a giant black & white print of a calla lily promoting one of Robert Mapplethorpe's shows, I think in a gallery or museum shop. I had the purple text cut off and then professionally framed and hung above my bed. After that I stumbled across a small calendar on another museum visit and again framed a couple of smaller black & white flower images of his. And in my ignorance, I thought that this entirely represented Mapplethorpe's photography.

In November 1996 I learnt that the Hayward Gallery was doing an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe's work and secured myself a ticket for an evening show after work, as I was handily contracting at IBM on the Southbank. I remember feeling awfully prissy in a less than sombre work suit queuing outside whereas my fellow art lovers seemed all aggressive in bondage trousers and studded leather. "Not the crowd I'd expect to like black & white photographs of lilies" I thought. And they probably thought of me, "she doesn't look like a big fan of explicit hard-core gay porn". Well, I realised quickly that it was indeed eye opening, and I'd been ignorant of this particular oeuvre until now! Subsequently I discovered that I was at a terribly controversial art exhibition with rare viewings of pieces that had been banned elsewhere. And not so many flowers I hasten to add! I could still admire his style, the clean, uncluttered monochromatic graphic images. It was definitely an education! Back then you couldn't just Google an artist and be enlightened. Firstly it was a couple of years before the birth of Google, and secondly I certainly didn't have access to a computer on the world wide web. Our computers at work had been used for word processing, spreadsheets and databases, and had access to internal email only. When I went for an interview shortly after I'd had to decamp to a library to use their single computer to have a hope of doing the necessary research for my required presentation.

I'd seen an article in the Observer magazine about the Antony Gormley Field for the British Isles (thank goodness for Google now) a while back. And courtesy of a poster discovered the show happened to be at the Hayward Gallery at the same time as Mapplethorpe, so I went off in search. In fact the sea of terracotta Gorms staring blankly up at me arranged in a way that you couldn't see the extremities of the room, was profound. Maybe the simplicity, the strange dumb trust was some sort of antidote to the mind-blowing images I'd seen next door. I remember crouching down next to them and feeling very tranquil.

 

 

 

Fast forward to present day. As well as Mapplethorpe we examined other flower artists to inspire us, Heather showed us some images from Flora Photographica, and as it was one of the reading list books I'd already stocked up on, I was delighted. She explained her paraphernalia for studio flower photography. We had pop up light cubes, a variety of backdrops, diffusers, clamps, bellows, reflectors and a jar full of flower specimens, Heather picked before we arrived. There was a mass erecting of tripods and I was very keen to get my hands on the white bells and wanted to try them against various backdrops. I was trying to channel Mapplethorpe but couldn't quite get the background to be as black as I liked. Heather showed me that I should opt for manual and a tiny aperture, rather than my customary 1.7 and get everything in focus plus blackening the backdrop. That was exactly the look I was trying to achieve. I then recreated the idea with the pink spray of flowers. it was also interesting to see the effect of a wide-open lens had on the white backdrops. My preference is for the black, but the paler has merit too.

 

After the studio, everyone was itching to get out in Kew again. I was keen to revisit some of the previous day's images and see if I could improve on sharpness. And as I'd had the foresight to bring my new rose covered high-heeled wellingtons, it seemed wrong not to break them out. I headed for the peonies and was shocked to see that overnight they'd been so battered by the winds, they were almost flat and the delicate papery petals were crushed and absent. These sad snaggle-toothed flowers were so depressing and a few others I'd intended a second go at were far from pristine too. I returned to the alpine house and was intrigued the effect of a smaller aperture on some of the blooms. The first purple one is taken on the initial visit and the second throwing more into focus a day later. I'm not sure as to my preference in this case.

I had planned joining the others in the waterlily house but was warned that my camera would most likely fog up and so thought I'd stay away being mindful of time (I'm not sure how long my little Leica would take to recoverm but knowing how easily it gets drowned I wouldn't risk it). Instead I thought I'd explore ferns, as they hadn't been so ravaged and see if I could end up with a single tulip specimen.

 

For those who didn't have to rush off we presented some of our images. I preferred the ones that had been taken on the workshop as it's always fascinating seeing other interpretation of similar photographic opportunities. I was the only one who'd been able to present any of the studio shots from today as I post-processed one over lunch (though I was thankful it needed very little)

Before I left I couldn't resist purchasing a couple more of Heather's books. I'm so hoping I get the opportunity to explore another one of her workshops. If I can fathom the Kew workshop booking system (extremely frustrating) I intend to keep an eye out for more. At least I have a Robert Canis wildflower workshop signed up for in July, and he gets to do the travelling this time!

 

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Day 125: a feast of flowers at Kew

It's so wonderful to have a photography workshop on my doorstep rather than having to negotiate tubes and trains and taxis. Kew is two bus rides away, not really onerous at all. I'm ashamed that despite being a Friend of Kew, I haven't been inside these gates apart from a drowning at the fabulous showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show courtesy of l(A)'s fabulous though slightly sodden birthday present. I really need to address that.

I read about Heather Angel and her inspirational flower photography a couple of years ago, round about the time I also learnt of one of her favourite gadgets, the Plamp. I was so delighted when investigating Robert Canis' first Kew workshops, that this two workshop was bring advertised too. I just couldn't resist.

I start off by trying to work out how to join my fellow workshop attendees, as I seemed to be in a museum, and can't initially find how to get to the classrooms above. When I do I meet everyone, we discuss our objectives of the workshop. My aim is for pretty simple, take my flower photography to the next level, learn new techniques and indulge in two days of non-stop photography. Then we sit back and watch an inspirational presentation from Heather. She's been all over the world and knows so much about the flora she's photographed too. We experience a heady mix of her fabulous flower photographs taken in situ, and then specimens photographed in a studio.

 

 

We are itching to get out and put some of our new knowledge into practice but it's clear the wind is whipping up a frenzy. Despite deployment of the Plamps, we're going to have a tricky time. We start off with trying to capture some seed heads hanging from trees that just won't stay still. Then we venture towards the alpine beds which are a vibrant sea of cerise and sunshine yellow peonies (well, I think they are), the bees are out in force but the petals are permanently shivering in the breezy day.

 

Some of the tiny flowers are harbouring passengers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We try and escape the windiness by heading towards the relative shelter of the Alpine House. Here I break out my new Pocket Wizards and try a bit of off-camera fill-in flash. My favourite is (not surprisingly with my well documented poppy addiction) the Alpine Poppy, I love how the background is almost blown out but you can see the dark interior surrounded by the shimmering, shivering crimson petals. The height of the flowers helps us deploy our tripods and get some inspiring images. There's so much choice choice here but I'm intrigued how I'm more drawn to the white flowers, the reds, the pinks and the occasional technicolour. We still can't escape the gusts though, the doors are open in the alpine glass house but next we venture into the palm house where the double doors keep the winds out and the temperate climate has us quickly disrobing.

 

 

 

We have so much material to work with here. I'm rather taken by the carnivorous plants, not just because it's not so humid as the main house, but it certainly helps. The wispy plants armed with tiny drops of glue to capture passing insects and too inquisitive camera lens too I can vouch for, are a fascination for me.

 

Just before we head back to our classroom one of the iguanas poses for us on one of the walkways.

 

 

I've taken over 300 photographs today, I'm sure a whole bunch can be eliminated because of blurring, but hopefully it there's still a plethora of close-up flower pictures I can be proud of. I foresee plenty of peering at photos and some post-processing too tonight. And there's a whole other day tomorrow, I cannot wait.

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