I shot this orchid on our front porch using a wood log as the background. It was late afternoon—or early evening—and I shot the flowers in deep shade. As I composed this image, I moved the flowers into the single patch of sunlight that was left. I used a small metallic reflector to make sure the light was uniform on all three blossoms.

I made three exposures, at 1/10 of a second, 1/20 of a second, and 1/30 of a second. Then I combined the images by hand in Photoshop, starting with the darkest version first. The exposures were shot with my 200mm macro lens at f/8 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.

My pre-visualization of this image was to make an orchid portrait that looked a little like a Georgia O’Keefe painting, and I think this succeeds somewhat, particularly with the topmost flower.