Cymbidium

Our Cymbidium orchid has begun flowering in the past few days and today was the first day the blooms were fully open. It lives in a shady part of the house and I began photographing it this morning indoors and the pictures were fine. I shot it in situ, then shot it against a bare wall, then decided because it was such a sunny day to try and take it against the blue sky. This meant carrying it in to the back garden.

The problem now was to get it elevated enough so that I could picture the flowers without getting any of the surrounding houses and trees in shot - not so easy. The solution was to bring round one of the wheelie bins. Even then, I was still not quite there with the angle so I propped the pot on a piece of broken pot. Now the leaves were in the way so I went inside and came out with some tea towels and dusters to drape over the leaves, but not so heavily that they broke another new stem of flower buds.

I didn't have the luxury of time as wisps of cloud were appearing now. There were not too many frames that achieved exactly what I was seeking and, even then, when the blue sky was disappearing I thought maybe I should have lowered the ISO since it was so sunny, but I forgot about that - but 400 isn't so bad.

In the end I didn't blip with the flowers against the bright blue sky but this one very close to the sun. Did I get it right? I don't know. My choices from the series are here. Anyway, suffice to say, I thought it was all worth it. Now I can get on with enjoying the Cymbidium in its own right. The waxy flowers usually last well over a month.

If you don't have orchids and want to try growing them, Cymbidium is a good starter plant as it will tolerate a lot (even being stuck on a wheelie bin in the cold).