This is in response to Michael Brown’s call for self critique posts.

The calypso orchid is very rare and a protected species that likes mossy conifer forests. We have a location where this flower grows a few miles from where I live but I only found the place recently, and the whole experience of seeing the orchid was special enough, even if I couldn’t have taken any pictures!

Composition was almost automatic, use an angle where the lip of the flower is between the upper petals and focus on the raindrop in the upper left 3rd, letting the other petals to balance the frame. Because I was shooting downwards and this flower is not very tall, I had to keep a large aperture to handle the background. I like shallow DOF though and I think that it helps to draw focus on the drops.

I used a golden reflector to light up the underside of the flower. The lower lip is more pronounced when lit and it also brings a bit more colour to the image, changing the mood to something a bit ”happier” than the dark un-reflected versions. Otherwise I had a bit of a struggle with the while balance, so I can only hope that I matched the true colour of the flower here.

What I don’t entirely like is the middle petal which curves up towards the camera, it’s seriously OOF and only shows as a blob. I don’t find it too distracting to spoil the image, but there it is anyway… I was not going to touch the flower to change anything! Another possible distraction is what looks like a tiny grain of pollen on the rightmost petal, but I chose not to clone it off.

All in all, I’m very happy with this image. It fulfils my usual criteria of being simple and balanced without (major!) distractions, while being something different with what the hopefully unusual angle. In my eye, it also shows the fragile beauty of this rare orchid. There is always a risk that an image that excites you at first will not stand the test of time, but the calypso orchid is so special that I will keep coming back to this for years to come. Maybe the subject itself has a bigger impact on me than my interpretation of it, so I am curious to hear how other people see this!