Orchids: Captivating, Exotic & Colorful
By Winston D. Munnings
27 March 2008
I have always had 'A Thing' for The Great Outdoors and, for awhile, was very much captivated with the prospects of photographing exotic wildlife.
Over the years I must have seen (literally) thousands of photographs about wildlife in so many enviable locations around the world. I soon realized, however, that some fantasies are best kept as fantasies if you want to pay the mortgage or plan for your retirement...if you know what I mean.
Then, one day I came across this solitary image near a hedge somewhere, which was simply pleading and begging to be photographed. And, this is where and how it all began. (To see that 1980 image that got me all excited about shooting plants and flower images Click http://www.jpgmag.com/photos/446547.)
After my Birth Of A Leaf capture, I became obsessed with shooting flowers and fascinated with the fact that photo subjects were certainly in no short supply anywhere. Unlike wildlife, everywhere you turn there is a blossom here or there or just a few steps in almost any direction.
Shooting Portraits of Orchids, though, became an attraction about five years ago after my wife, Jennifer, won an Orchid raffle of twenty-five assorted plants. Moreover, and to add insult to injury, she won a subsequent Orchid raffle months later gaining an additional twenty-five to thirty of these air plants. For her, it was as if she had died and gone to Orchid Heaven. While admiring orchids growing in her Native Bahamas, she never really owned one or had even considered trying her hand at cultivating or maintaining her own collection. Now her obsession with her beloved Orchids is 'full-blown' as she resembles Dracula In A Blood Bank whenever there is an Orchid showing or exhibition anywhere. Just cannot seem to get enough.
As for me, I was so taken up with the remarkable flower blossoms of these fragile testicle-shaped root plants, that I just clicked away trying to capture which, for me then, was a spanking new photographic experience. Again, since subject matter was in no short supply, I always had something to photograph which accelerated my interest in Orchids ten fold. (Incidentally, the word Orchid comes from the Greek orchis, meaning testicles, because the roots of a wild Orchid resemble testicles.)
Now, our little patio is congested with Vandas, Cattleyas, Dendrobiums, Oncidiums and a few other species, which are always a challenge for Jennifer, as she strives to thwart an early death for some of her prized possessions.
Since I started shooting Portraits of Orchids, I must have at least three hundred images in my collection which I am now marketing over the Internet, and at photo exhibition shows beginning 2009. I have many favorites, but this compilation is special which friends get to marvel at (as framed wall art) whenever visiting my home in Lakes by The Bay.
Please visit: http://www.PortraitOfaFlower.com or send and email to: Winston@PortraitOfaFlower.com for more information
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