Flower Workshop in NYC with Barbara Bordnick

I just returned from a very educational workshop under the direction of floral photographer, Barbara Bordnick. We first went to the flower market in lower Manhattan and chose flowers to photograph. Then we learned a great deal about sophisticated lighting with strobes, much of which I do not think I will be able to duplicate.  Barbara and her assistants gave instructions on lighting, floral arrangements, and processing of the images for printing.  Once again, it is apparent the power of Photoshop!

The flowers photographed included tulips, peonies, poppies, and phalaenopsis orchids.

Here are a selection of the images I photographed this weekend.  Please give any comments and suggestions.

Spring Tulips

Last year I had the opportunity to visit Keukenhof in the Netherlands. It had been on my "bucket" list for a long time, but there was never an opportunity to travel to see the tulips while I was teaching.  The gardens are extraordinary, with fields and fields of research tulips nearby.  I spend three hours photographing as many tulips as possible and fortunately had a sunny day to do it.

My florist grandfather was Dutch and my family has been in the florist family since the 1800's. So, of course I had to go see the tulips!

Here is a tulip montage I made last week.

May Montages

The first weekend for the Garden Conservancy was May 8th and opened in a garden near Trumansburg for those of us living in this area of Central New York. The garden contained many specimens of fragrant lilacs and a collection of tulips and small tree peonies scattered in gardens behind the farm home. I photographed the flowers and then manipulated them to produce several montages pictured here.

I also produced a montage from tulips growing in the Cornell Plantations Young Garden, which is a portion of the Botanical Garden that is devoted to how we use flowers in our own lives, such as for births, weddings, deaths, Mother's Day, etc. The garden changes throughout the season and is well worth a visit.