Studio in the Garden - Echinacea

One of my favourite nature photographers is Niall Benvie who in the past few years has developed an unusual method of photographing plants and animal life on location which seem to have been made in a studio. Using off camera flash with a translucent white background the subjects can be seen without the distraction of a sometimes fussy background.

An echinacea plant in my garden has come nicely into flower so the morning was spent trying to emulate Niall's set up using an off camera flashgun fitted with a small soft box. The background was a piece of white card placed just behind the flowers.

The results have been promising so the next stage is try a set up using a translucent white background lit by a second flash. This will need a little more experimentation on my part so please watch this space.

Our camera club have a project underway for members to produce a folio on a self chosen subject which will be put on show for the public at Dimbola Lodge photographic museum towards the end of the year. I think my subject will now be flower portraits in the style of botanical paintings using this field studio method. I just need to get the technicalities nailed ,or should that be Nialled?