This week I shot my first photo story. It will run full-page in Wednesday's Optimist, and I have to say it was a lot of fun. Here are some of the shots I got, though not necesarily the ones that ran in the paper.
This image is of Bitsy making a bud-vase, a popular Valentine's Day order. The vase will eventually contain several sprigs of leather, a leafy green plant, a little baby's breath, and a single long-stemmed rose. In this shot, she is spraying the leaves and stalk of the rose with Pokon to make them shiny. I like this shot because it shows the wrinkles of Bitsy's hand--a hand that is still strong and steady after 31 years in the business.
I've included this image just because I like it. I like the color, the composition...it's not the best picture in the world, but the feeling it gives is soothing and simply makes me happy. The gerber dasies are wrapped in "bonnets" to keep them from opening too soon. This picture was taken on the Friday before Valentine's Day on Tuesday, so they had to stay fresh for some time before going out in arrangements.
I've included this shot because it shows the chaos of the shop: flowers everywhere, baskets of orders for Valentine's Day, and Bitsy, as usual, up to her elbows in flowers. She is straigtening the heads of the gerber daisies so that they will stand tall in thier arrangements.
And here was a mistake I made: Debbie (yellow) and Lauren (blue) were arranged perfectly...well, except for the harsh backlighting behind Lauren's hands and head. It was the shot I was waiting for, had composed in my mind. They stepped into it...and then Bitsy did too. If I had been looking for her, as I should have been, I'd have waited for her to go a little further to show a sense of movement. As it is, she is just a distraction. In any case, the ladies are cutting thorns off of countless dozens of roses. All the roses arranged at Bitsy's have their thorns cut off--one less thing to distract from the special moment of recieving beautiful flowers.
And the finished product. The business next door to Bitsy's, The Tool School, allows Bitsy to use his tables, air conditioning, and most importantly space to store the finished arrangments. The arrangements start being made on Sunday and are mostly finished by Tuesday morning--except for the extremely late procrastinators that is. I did a series of shots like this in a sort of layered focus, but thought this one was best for the group of pictures I've included here.
This image is of Bitsy making a bud-vase, a popular Valentine's Day order. The vase will eventually contain several sprigs of leather, a leafy green plant, a little baby's breath, and a single long-stemmed rose. In this shot, she is spraying the leaves and stalk of the rose with Pokon to make them shiny. I like this shot because it shows the wrinkles of Bitsy's hand--a hand that is still strong and steady after 31 years in the business.
I've included this image just because I like it. I like the color, the composition...it's not the best picture in the world, but the feeling it gives is soothing and simply makes me happy. The gerber dasies are wrapped in "bonnets" to keep them from opening too soon. This picture was taken on the Friday before Valentine's Day on Tuesday, so they had to stay fresh for some time before going out in arrangements.
I've included this shot because it shows the chaos of the shop: flowers everywhere, baskets of orders for Valentine's Day, and Bitsy, as usual, up to her elbows in flowers. She is straigtening the heads of the gerber daisies so that they will stand tall in thier arrangements.
And here was a mistake I made: Debbie (yellow) and Lauren (blue) were arranged perfectly...well, except for the harsh backlighting behind Lauren's hands and head. It was the shot I was waiting for, had composed in my mind. They stepped into it...and then Bitsy did too. If I had been looking for her, as I should have been, I'd have waited for her to go a little further to show a sense of movement. As it is, she is just a distraction. In any case, the ladies are cutting thorns off of countless dozens of roses. All the roses arranged at Bitsy's have their thorns cut off--one less thing to distract from the special moment of recieving beautiful flowers.
And the finished product. The business next door to Bitsy's, The Tool School, allows Bitsy to use his tables, air conditioning, and most importantly space to store the finished arrangments. The arrangements start being made on Sunday and are mostly finished by Tuesday morning--except for the extremely late procrastinators that is. I did a series of shots like this in a sort of layered focus, but thought this one was best for the group of pictures I've included here.
2 comments:
Great job! And great job on the column, too. You are officially Ms. Optimist : ) I looked at your blog right before I looked at the photo story in the Optimist. At first, when I saw the photo of the two girls picking the thorns off in the Optimist, I thought you had just photo-shopped Bitsy out! Then I realized that it was a slightly different picture. I like the one of the daisies and of Bitsy's hand. Good job!
I really like the bonnet one. I love the colors and the close up with the blury flowers in the background.
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