From Below
“Part of what gives a flower such charge is that, even as we plunge our face into its blowsy petals,
and enjoy its heady scent, we know that tomorrow it may have turned.”
—Lucy Davies, New Photography of the Flower.
The anemones are from my own flower garden, the patch that runs alongside the sidewalk to our home. The zinnias are from the flower farm at Garner’s Produce in Warsaw, Virginia. Both photos were taken on this hot and sunny August day. Both photos also required that I lie on my back and shoot pictures from ground level, up into the sky. The zinnias were taken mid-morning when the skies were blue with puffy clouds, and I had to aim at an angle because I only had my 85mm lens with me. I also had to lie down in the garden dirt. The anemone photo was taken in early evening as the sun faded—no clouds, just the rim of the oak trees in our yard. Because I had a comfy quilt to lie upon, I was able to aim pretty much directly overhead into the sky.
My hip hurts a bit from all the getting down and back up again, over and over. I’ve used my foam roller to reset my body and scheduled a day of rest for tomorrow. Still, I feel good for the effort and happy with the pictures made from below, looking up to the underside of the flowers.