Roses and th'other

Fifty ways to see your Roses.... part 3

I've been thinking about the challenge of flower photograpahy: that it is over done.  When I was in Amsterdam recently, I was reminded of the power of the original baroque still life painters; their ability to convey the luxury of ordinary things for an emerging, wealthy bourgeoisie.  It was a break from religious painting.  It was self centred in a way.

It was the Protestant declaration that we are here.  We are rich.  We are going to tame the material world.

The Dutch understood the American dream way before the Americans did.  What will the Chinese version look like?

But I digress.  The old Dutch masters inspired me to try and photograph a rose in fifty ways that haven't been seen before.

It starts tomorrow.

L'importance, c'est la rose....

Love, hate...no it's love........part 3

This fujifilm X-Pro 1 is quite something.  I am now able to shoot with my big strobe soft box.

I couldn't for a while.   I had the camera in "silent mode" because I dislike the beep: the flash doesn't wortk.  It took me hours to find our why the flash didn't fire.  I guess I'm just not on their wavelength.  I almost lost it, but then read the manaual and had a cup of tea.  It was an epiphany.

The controls aren't intuitive but they are well thought out.  They help make photographs:  tres important!

I'm off to Europe Tuesday afternoon.  I'll try to blog from there.  I'm taking the fuji and two lenses.