“If you’d quit the moment the reward didn’t show up, you’d have quit a long time ago. You’re still here. Still making things. That’s not because you’re winning an imaginary (or real) prize. It’s because some part of you loves the doing, and that’s the most important part we must protect. ”
This project has taken several unexpected turns. I did not expect to spend my summer traipsing along Virginia back roads to small flower farms. I did not expect to spend so many days dreaming of ways to photograph flowers. Ways that feel fresh and yet not contrived. For much of my life, buying fresh flowers felt like a kind of luxury I could not afford, and often like a waste of money since they die anyway. I cringe now when I hear those thoughtless words—discounting beauty and joy as though they need to earn their place in this world. I was wrong. It is the very fact that flowers bloom fiercely and perish quickly that makes them worth noticing. I did not expect to change my mind; I did not see that photographing the flowers might become my own fertile soil for growth.
Next up, I am planning to learn to press flowers. I wonder if I could make a simple pressed flower arrangement on white paper and photograph it for the book. Or, and this might be even better, I could print a blank page in the book and affix the pressed flowers to that page (I would need to separate this page with acid free vellum). I also want to learn a bit about making paper collages from a local artist. I think it might be fun to add a collage to the project, something that celebrates texture and color and light. Hmm . . . I love this part of any project, the thinking and brainstorming, and the unfolding. I’ll keep you posted on how things are going.
I’m continuing to follow along with Process ☼ On Photography, by Wesley Verhoeve as he makes a photo book. Wesley has been sharing his process step-by-step. Sunday’s post was all about sequencing images. As he explains:
Sequencing images is not just a matter of putting pictures in order to get a nice reading flow. That is of course part of it, but what you’re really doing is deciding what each picture means.
He goes on to give examples of sequencing his own images for his current project. I especially enjoyed his take on choosing the first and last images for the book. Very helpful information. He suggests:
After you make your sequence, leave it out for a few days. Walk past it. Look at it while you are doing something else. You will start to see where the flow is smooth and where something is sitting in the wrong place. The first sequence is never the final sequence. It is a starting point.
Sequencing photographs for my florilegium photo book, summer 2026
I have culled my images and am beginning to work on sequencing. Since late March, I have taken over 2500 flower pictures which live in at least 75 folders. It took me a long while to narrow the focus for the project, and there are many pictures that will not make it into the book. Pictures no one will ever see. But those less good pictures, got me to the really worthwhile ones, the ones that will tell my story.
I try to be open to receive photos in overlooked places. The coffee shop that places little vases of fresh-cut flowers on each table and the morning sunshine that is their stage. The flower farm that tosses the spent zinnias into a compost heap in a haphazard way that happens to look like art.
