I started this post about a month ago…and then life happened and I forgot to finish it! The Iris in my garden was looking very beautiful. Sadly, it has now faded away again for another year, but at the time I tried to capture how it looked.
And that’s where I totally bombed!
If you are familiar with an Iris flower, they’re quite a unique shape to photograph. In some ways they remind me of a tongue with a catepillar crawling on it, and no matter what angle I tried, I couldn’t find anything that pleased me. Iris look great en masse, but when I photographed a single flower, it just didn’t thrill me!
I’ll show you what I mean.
What I did learn is that the Iris (much like the human eye) has some beautiful intricate details that I’ve not noticed before. It has an almost animal print effect on the petails and a gorgeous, feathery effect yellow Beard (true word – I Googled it!). But no matter how I tried, I could seem to convey it in a photo that made me happy. So I turned to Google again and it seems, I wasn’t alone.
This chap (Stephen Bloedow), has also encountered the same problem. He’s written a blog post about how to get the best possible shot from the Iris, suggesting some hints and tips. If you’re really hard core, he even suggests where to plant them to achieve the best photographic results. Sadly, I just plonked mine in the border next to a fence. If you want to check out his article, I’ve put the link below. It’s worth a look.
http://www.stephenbloedow.com/how-to-photograph-iris-flowers/
So, these are the two images I think are just about OK to show you.
Not perfect, but you see what I mean about the tricky shape? Why don’t you give it a go if you still have some in bloom near you.