I love gardenias and their heady, sweet fragrance…so long as they are outside. To many people, their smell is too reminiscent of a funeral parlor and I tend to agree but, in the right place, they are not only fragrant, they are lovely to look at. Today I visited my friends Henry and Sharon to thank them for watching my house (and, as it turns out, saving my fountain which had a slight mishap while I was gone) and to deliver my thank you gifts. When I left, Henry cut me a bouquet of gardenias from their entry. Their fragrance was almost overpowering in the 95° heat but it was a sweet gesture and I figured I could tolerate them if I set them in the living room. As I started to arrange the bouquet, it struck me that I hadn’t yet taken any photos today. They were lovely with water droplets on the petals. Since my “studio” still had remnants from yesterday’s shoot, I took a bloom upstairs to photograph. I set the camera on the tripod determined to use my 35mm prime lens with a low ISO, a slow shutter speed, and a small aperture to see what the results would be. I used my OTT lights as the lighting and set the flower on a black background.
I tried focusing on different points on the flower and leaves to see if the hyperfocal distance theory would work on a closeup. I think it does. When I focused on the flower center, the most prominent part closest to the camera, the entire flower seems to be in focus and when I focused on the drops on the back leaves or lower leaves, different parts of the flower are out of focus. I like the result with the focus on the center of the flower.
Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/13
1/4
Cropped
Smells like a funeral parlor? I had never heard that! I think of tropical settings like Hawaii when I smell gardenias (I love them). Beautiful, very professional looking shot!