Amaryllis Study

Amaryllis Rising

Last Christmas, my wife brought home an Amaryllis bulb. It was fascinating to watch the long stalk form, the soon-to-be-revealed flower at its tip. Flowers are intriguing to me--always have been, as they are for many photographers. Dr Freud might have an interesting perspective on this obsession with another species' reproductive organs! As a biologist AND a photographer, frankly, I share the obsession at a number of levels. Perhaps it is my age or my natural bent toward reflections on the meaning of life, but I began to see the Amaryllis blossom as metaphor for the cycle of life; this is certainly not an original musing. While I have characterized or cast these photographs in a decidedly female orientation, a flower is really both male and female, stamens and pistils, pollen producers and receptors, peacefully coexisting. As a scientist, it was noteworthy to watch the sequence unfolding over time, how the structure changes, which parts begin to wither first (a process known as programmed cell death), and finally, which organs maintain structural integrity until the very end. I find it a striking and beautiful, if terrifying, process. I hope you enjoy my little life cycle study on my website: www.DavidEckelsPhotography.com.

The first in the series is a shot of the nascent petals as they are unfolding, Amaryllis Rising. I think the perspective adds to the appreciation of the rather impressive stalk, topped by an exquisitely beautiful bud, the color of which is so subtle that I found it very difficult to get just right. I must have fiddled away a hundred shots trying to get the perspective and exposure correct. Lighting is indirect through a window on a cloudy day. Relatively minor post processing followed in Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop Extended CS5. I shot this from the floor, pointing upwards with my Nikon D7000, Nikkor 85 mm DX micro-lens at f/8, 1/125 sec, and ISO 800. Cropped to simplify with my dad's assistance (again!) so that the blossom sits on the "rule of thirds" intersect.

Amaryllis Prime

Amaryllis Prime focuses (literally) on the pistils and stamen of the blossom at the peak of "nubility." This shot turns out to be technically quite difficult from a depth of field standpoint. I tried a number of exposures ranging from f/5.6 to f/36. The higher the f-number, the greater the depth of field BUT also, the greater the loss of sharpness due to a phenomenon known as diffraction. I liked the composition; in other words I did not want to shift my vantage point so that all the "parts" were in the same focal plane, but I also wanted as much sharpness as possible so that you could see the individual pollen grains on the anthers as well as the follicles of the pistil (stigma). To solve this, I shot a series of photographs at f/11 1/60 sec, focusing first on the nearer pistil, then successively on the near anther (left) and those more towards the center. Four images with different focal points were merged in CS5, a technique known as focus stacking, to obtain a final with all of the pieces sharply visible. Yes, the red is a little "enhanced" but not a lot!

Amaryllis Cougar

As the blossom began to fade, I wondered if I could capture anything of beauty from its final days. Amaryllis Cougar is the result--forgive me! Subtle changes in the coloring, some mottling, and bits that had begun to wilt were becoming evident. But the sexual structures remained turgid and vibrant! This was shot with the same camera and lens at f/11, 1 sec at ISO 200. Focus was on the rear anther and you can see the DOF problem: the stigma is out of focus. I tried the stacked focus approach, but due to the long exposure, I got movement and therefore could not merge images.

Amaryllis-Last Hope

Finally, could I capture a photograph of a flower so far past its prime that almost nobody would give it a thought? Death is not beautiful, even though it is programmed into all of us by our genes, a process biologists term senescence. My last shot, Amaryllis-Last Hope, is an attempt to capture this in some evocative way. Backlit indirectly from a window, you can still see the remnants of color interleaving the venation of the wilted petal. It is kind of sad, yet note the erect stigma follicles sharply and starkly receptive to one last hope of pollination! It reminds me for some reason of veiled ladies from the old days. Nikon D7000, DX 85 mm Nikkor micro lens, f/ll, 1/250 sec, ISO 200.

Well, I hope I have not offended you with these sexual references, but I do also hope that you will reflect on these photographs and ponder them. I must say, that these are among some of the most deeply personal images I have captured and I enjoyed sharing them with you.