one|february 2014

A little something different for me this month – macro photography. And it’s not even a shot of a kid OR a dog! Sometimes it’s really fun (and challenging) to jump outside of your genre for a little bit. I loved playing around and shooting some macros of flowers at the Chicago Botanic Gardens last weekend for multiple reasons:

1) For once I wasn’t shooting a moving target 2) No skin tones to fuss with in editing – just brilliant beautiful colors that barely need any enhancement in post-production 3) Macro photography is so different in terms of camera settings, you pretty much have to throw out everything you’ve learned to make it work. Lots of patience is required!

Since I’m a biologist I had fun explaining that orchids are epiphytes to my boys (there’s still some plant biology buried in my brain somewhere)! They’re the mooches of the plant world – living non-parasitically on top of/around other plants, soaking up what nutrients and water that they can from the environment, air, rain and debris around them. Like that friend in college who was always bumming rides home off of you, they just sort of hang out and…mooch  🙂  It was fun hearing my 3 and 4 year old saying “epiphyte”. This display was so good it held even their interest for over an hour!

p.s. if you are in the Chicago area, I highly recommend heading to the orchid show that is going on at the botanic gardens until March 16th. They have tens of thousands of orchids in a beautifully designed display. I don’t know how they do it, as I have never been able to keep an orchid alive. It’s pretty amazing and just smells great when you walk in! Now follow me to NYC by clicking here to see what my ever-talented friend Stacey has been up to in February, and continue to click the links to visit the entire circle.