Botanical of the Week

When I was small I lived my grandparents for many years. My grandfather was a photographer and I remember an image that was framed on the wall of a simple white flower that he had photographed. I stared at the photo for hours on end and sometimes I wonder if that image planted a seed in my heart that would bloom when a camera finally found its way into my hands.

My mother gave me my first all-manual camera body (a Pentax K1000) when I graduated from high school. I'm not very good at reading directions or staying awake during any sort of "instructional " anything so the first 10 years of my experience as a photographer was an endless series of "mishaps." (I think this might be a wonderful theme for my blog, actually.) Anyhow, my parents took me to visit the botanical gardens in Wisconsin that summer where I shot my first botanical images. I was very confused when I got my prints back from the lab by all the wacky psychedelic colors until someone explained to me that I had shot slide film and had it developed as C41 film ("cross processing"). I was an artist and didn't even know it. Here are a couple of my favorites from that batch.

"Hearts on a Limb"

"Peony Peek-a-Boo"

Botanical photography became a very private love of mine over the years and I've had the opportunity to photograph gardens and plant life all over the world as we've traveled for weddings and our own little vacations. Opening my gallery this winter has given me the opportunity to put many of them on display and I think I'll start posting a couple here on this blog every couple weeks. I adore them and I'm excited to share them with everyone!

"Milkwash"

"Rosy Cherry Glow"