“Day Lilies”

“It is in the darkest hour, when we are faced with our deepest most wrenching fears, that we are given the greatest strength. The choice is whether we succumb to the fear or rise with courage to face our truth and shine our brilliance as our sword of valour.”
― Monika Zands
I keep reminding myself to look around me, carefully, appreciating the common things.
Recently, I’ve been doing some macro work as well as playing with layers in Photoshop to isolate my subjects. Today, I moved to the studio and played with lighting to combine these two photographic styles. I’ve been inspired by the works of a photographer on 500px who creates masterpieces (in my opinion) with flowers and studio lighting.
Drawing on that inspiration and gathering a few day lilies from the garden, which I always take for granted and essentially ignore as a ‘filler’ plant, I set up my lights, carefully positioned the lilies in a tall vase, and set about experimenting with ideal camera settings. Within a few tries, I had something that I was happy with and moved over to my iMac to check them out. The result is posted above.
I don’t think I’ll ever look at Day Lilies the same way again. They are stunning, seemingly on fire with colour and light.
Interestingly, I never saw myself doing much studio work, preferring to be outdoors in a canoe or on a trail somewhere. This might be a new rainy day pastime for me.
Nikon D800
Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD @ 110 mm
1/140 sec, f/14.0, ISO 6400
High Resolution image on 500px:
For more images like this, please visit my Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/EdLehming
or my website (some images available for purchase)
http://www.edlehming.com

Lovely shots!
Thanks, trying something new.
great images – photography is all about taking risks and trying something new 🙂
Thank Ann. Yes, this (studio work) is a new venture for me and I’m really enjoying it.
Beautiful shot!
Thank you
Exquisite!
Thank you
These day lilies are beautifully captured and presented. Thanks.
Thanks Cee.
The black background really punches up the color making these lilies both spectacular and quite dramatic- they deserve a second look- or third or fourth😉
Thanks, experimenting with something new.
I really like how you add what type of camera you used, etc. I need to get better at the technical aspect of photography. Thanks for sharing. -Hope
I’ve always appreciated when photographers shared their settings. It makes me consider the ‘how’ of the photograph more.
I think that’s what makes a good photographer into a great photographer. i have so much more to learn and that’s why i like looking at other people’s photography. Thanks for the great site!
Thanks, I’m still learning, but I want to share along the way. Studio work is completely new to me.
BTW this is a beautiful pic!
Thank you
Wow! Stunning.
Thank you.