"I should take pictures of your flowers, Scott."
"Definitely." He smiled and nodded.
Just months before this conversation happened, I swore I'd never take pictures of flowers until I started experimenting with flower art.
My good friend Scott and I were talking about one of his hobbies of growing dahlias and entering them into shows. I knew he was as serious about creating living beauty as I was about capturing it with my camera.
There is no doubt that flowers are the most challenging subject I've every pointed my camera at.
This is due mostly to the fact that all specimens of flowers are beautiful in some way, but when you capture these in fine detail, the irony is that all of the tiny flaws are magnified. These imperfections are hardly noticed when looking at them in real life.
Fast forward months later. My phone buzzed.
Scott sent me a text: "A dozen good dahlias are at their prime. Let me know if you want any."
Not only did he remember, but he gave me first dibs on the flowers. I had to take him up on it after he sent me pictures of some of them.
I drove over to his house and went to his backyard where all of them were swaying back and forth in the wind.
With the clippers in hand, we walked around like detectives trying to find the absolute best gems, and there were a lot of them. He started snipping away and placed each flower in its very own vase like a rare, fine artifact.
I came home and put my new-found friends in the refrigerator.
Scott told me to stick them in the fridge to preserve them until light conditions were optimal.
One by one, I took them out and captured every angle. In fact, I ended up shooting most of them twice.
Thousands of images later, here are a few of my favorite dahlias.
The subtle color of this dahlia almost seems to glow outward. This one was my favorite.
Deep reds in flowers are overbearing for camera sensors. The color in this dahlia was so vibrant that it was extra tricky.
This shaggy dahlia had extra personality and my goal was to highlight its funky shape.
