Helene Glassman has been here this weekend and we are having a ball! While Hal is hanging out in the cold with Eagles we are in the studio and digital lab making some wonderful images and ultimately some beautiful cards that we will print today.

On Saturday, Helene brought in several vases full of beautiful tulips, sunflowers, Lily's and I brought in some birds of paradise and camellia’s from my garden. We set up several areas where the students could play and create with the flowers, some different colored fabrics as well as some beautiful Christian Louboutin shoes and an old wooden chair that Helene found out back!

Window lighting was all we needed. Our studio has large west facing windows with a sheer curtain we used to diffuse the afternoon light.

I whipped out our collection of Canon Macro lenses, thank you Canon, and got some beautiful shots! With a little post processing in Adobe Lightroom I got a few great images ready for cards...and perhaps canvas later.

Below are a few images I took while the students were taking a break. All window lighting with a simple piece of black fabric hung behind. The 65mm 1-5x lens on a 1D Mark III on an Induro tripod. The 65mm can be a challenge to use to those just starting with it. Very small changes in rotation and position of the subject make very different images. I had the tulip on black tulle and I would just push the fabric a little when I wanted the focal point changed. It is like breathing with your camera was the best way to focus and create the different images.

This image to the left was also with the 65mm. Once I found a good focus point, I took our little fluorescent flashlights that Canon hands out as little perks, and just highlighted the inside base of the tulip. I liked the "cool" color of the fluorescent light against the pink and white of the flower.

Below was shot with the 100mm Macro

I think I'll dedicate this image above to Hal.