* For those wondering about my process, here is a brief description, with pics, of the a typical flower/hummingbird shoot.
So, I bought two orchid cuttings at my favorite flower shop (nice that they even carry them), a white and a purple Dendrobium. I figured Dirty Pete would enjoy them. The white was shot and done in less than half a day - quick for me - but the purple plagued me. First, though it was a healthy flower, it was gnarled from it's time in the bucket in the cooler at the florists. So it didn't look "natural". In spite of this I persevered.
First day was the most difficult. We spent about 3-4 hours on this one alone. With the flower looking so gnarly it was difficult to choose a composition. But Dirty Pete did his part, I did mine and we came up with this:
I'm happy with the pose, position and lighting on the bird, but I'm not happy with everything else on this one.
Second day, flower a little better and we tried a shift in position and BG for compositional purposes. Still after another 3-4 hours, though better, the lighting is lacking in #2.
Finally today, with the plant looking almost normal and familiarity working in our favor, I managed to light the scene the way I meant it to be lit. Then it was just a matter of getting Dirty Pete on the scene (never a problem for him as this morning was cool and he was averaging 4 minute intervals), getting him in the right pose, position and hoping every thing else came together. He gave me a lot of options to choose from in the 2 1/2 hours it took (only the last hour or so had I gotten the light right) and here is my favorite. I'm very happy with this one.
Miss Julia Grey (she/her/Miss)
