Looking at some upright bunches of flowers recently in cylindrical vases, it occurred to me that the bunch itself made an interesting structure for a light box composition.

Tulip Bunch © Harold Davis

One of the key compositional conundrums in light box photography is presenting an underlying structure of the image. Generally, for these kinds of images to be successful, there must be structure. For example—some of the simplest cases—the arrangement may be grounded by a central stalk or stem, or composed as a bouquet.

A related problem is how you handle the boundary problems of the image; in other words, creating a successful treatment of the meeting of the botanical subject and the image frame. Generally, floating the subject in the middle with no connection to the boundaries does not work well. It occurred to me that photographing bunches of flowers might be an exception.

Daffodils and Irises © Harold Davis

It was important in making these images to first place the images in the cylinder, so that the mass of the flowers assumed the bunched shape I was looking for.

Tulip Bunch at the beginning of this story was made from nine captures my with my Nikon D850 and Zeiss Otus 55mm on tripod. Each exposure as at f/16 and ISO 64, with exposure times ranging from 1/30 of a second to 4 seconds.

Daffodils and Irises used the same gear and basic exposure concept, with eight exposures ranging from 1/15 of a second to 4 seconds. 

At the florist, it typically goes by the name Lisianthus. It’s also commonly known as the Prairie gentian, reflecting the grasslands where this flower is usually found (when not at a florist!). The modern botanical name is Eustoma, from the ancient Greek words for “pleasing mouth.”

Inside Lisianthus © Harold Davis

By whatever name, the deep blossom shape called out to my macro-probe lens, one of a series of images I have photographed inside flower blossoms including those shown in Hollyhock ‘Halo Candy’, Falling in Love, Inside Digitalis, Flowers or Sea Creatures, and more.

With these photographs, the macro wide-angle lens on a stalk goes with the blossom. I use the builtin ring light to see to focus, then use a relatively long exposure (usually about thirty seconds) to capture the details inside the flower.

I have got a great deal of mileage over the years from Alstroemeria (Peruvian lily) petals. These petals are shown in this photo on a decorative glass plate on my light box. Compared to other flower petals, they seem to work particularly well with light coming through them, backlit on a light box. This is due to the translucency of the alstroemeria petal, their variability in color, and variegated patterns and markings.

Petals on a Plate © Harold Davis

It’s hard to know where to begin with my images that use these flower petals, but a few that I like are Floral Composition, Alstroemeria Medley, Petals on Parade, New Year’s Dragon, Spiral of Flower Karma, It Starts with a Petal and Ends with a Twist of Fate, Floral Tondo, and Flowers on Ebony and Ivory. Selected images from these blog stories are shown below.

Floral Composition © Harold Davis

Alstroemeria Medley © Harold Davis

Petals on Parade © Harold Davis

New Year’s Dragon on Black © Harold Davis

Spiral of Flower Karma © Harold Davis

A Simple Twist of Fate 4 © Harold Davis

Floral Tondo 1 © Harold Davis

Will You Won’t You Join the Dance © Harold Davis

I photographed this white peony the other day on my light box. Most flowers reveal a highly organized inner core; this bashful peony exemplifies more private mysteries. The result, white on white, is unlike the more typical flower mandala, and more resembles something logographic, such as a heiroglyph or kanji character.

White Peony © Harold Davis