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Photography by Ira Gardner

Botanical Study

Posted on April 20, 2020February 11, 2023

This weekend I spent some time in my newly remodeled home studio making more photographs of the dying daffodils.

It was the first time I had a chance to use the new studio lighting setup since the contractors finished the barn remodel for me. One of the things I was excited about was to have a ceiling track system that allows me to suspend a large softbox over the top of my subject to simulate natural sunlight.

In February we hired Base Enterprises to remodel our old barn into a new studio.

I first built this home made track system out of a garage door track and installed it in my first apartment studio back in the early 90’s when I was focusing on product photography just out of college.

With several studio moves and a shift towards portraiture I hadn’t used the track in a long time. I kept the track thinking I would always get back to it.

I use a combination of softboxes and grid spots to create the contour highlights of my subject.

Now I am revisiting the skills learned from doing commercial photography and applying it to my fine art botanical studies. I absolutely love the way these dying flowers become like tissue paper with light passing through the petals. They just get more and more beautiful to me.

The same is true for people. As I photographed these flowers I was thinking about how our own skin becomes transparent and how often age reveals the spirit of the heart as we become more vulnerable and delicate .

In art there is a tradition of “memento mori” in still life paintings which is latin for “remember you must die.” I think these photographs are my own reminder of this truth and from that I see the beauty of a life well lived.

My photography of flowers has been influenced by my appreciation and study of ikebana. As I photographed these flowers I experimented with different designs and explored ways to simplify the composition by removing as many elements as possible.

Below is a slideshow of some of the other images from this photo session.

Dying Daffodils 2020_04_19-
Dying Daffodils 2020_04_19--2
Dying Daffodils 2020_04_19--5
Dying Daffodils 2020_04_19-8137-2
Dying Daffodils 2020_04_19-8110
DaffodilBartch2-
Dying Daffodils 2020_04_19-8168
Dying Daffodils 2020_04_19-8137Logo
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