The tulips were strongly backlit by the sun. The flowers were also swaying to and fro in a swift breeze. With my 200mm telephoto macro lens mounted on a tripod I shot this flower at a fast enough shutter speed (1/640 of a second) to stop the motion. My thought was to use the very distinctive natural lighting to create a flower composition that had echoes of a Georgia O’Keeffe painting.

Odds and ends:

• Interview with Harold Davis, Maestro of Flowers and Waterdrops is a new podcast on Pixiq. I actually enjoyed listening to myself and my refrain that “there are no rules”—maybe you will, too!
• We have room for only two more photographers one more photographer on our April, 2013 Photograph Paris with Harold Davis workshop. Besides shooting Paris at night, we will shoot Monet’s Gardens at Giverny, and work to emulate the monochromatic visions of Paris expressed by Brassai and Atget. Click here for workshop overview, complete trip itinerary, and online registration.
• There are a few places left in my weekend Macros, Close-Ups, and Flowers workshop coming up from Friday, June 1 through Sunday June 3, 2012, and hosted in the romantic Coastguard Boathouse on the western tip of Point Reyes, California. This workshop is given under the auspices of the Point Reyes Field Institute, and it is an absolutely unique opportunity in many ways. I should also point out that the workshop is extremely reasonably priced for the weekend (meals are potluck). Here’s the link for online registration.