For the past 150 years, the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, MO has maintained one of the finest collections of Orchids from around the world. They maintain over 7,000 types of Orchids in their collection at the Orthwein Floral Display Hall. Every year for a month in February, the Missouri Botanical Gardens presents a stunning display of Orchids within a theme. I was lucky enough to be given access to the display the day before show opens. This years theme is Vanilla.
Everyone knows what vanilla is, but many people do not realize that Vanilla actually comes from an Orchid. Vanilla Orchids are grown around the world, but most originated from Mesoamerica, which includes parts of what is now Mexico and Guatemala. Today the biggest production of Vanilla comes from Madagascar and Indonesia.
When you walk into the Orchid Show it is like walking into a large tropical rain forest garden, with paths to lead you thru a maze of beautiful growth. Everywhere you look there are Orchids and tropical plants.
Some Orchids are quite large, while others are very tiny. Every year I shoot this exhibit I am overwhelmed when I arrive. All I can think is how do I capture all this beauty? It kinds feels like being a kid in a candy store. You take one image, turn and think “Oh, . . look at that!”
I shot these images with a Super Color Converted Canon 7DMKII. Even though I brought other lenses, in the end I only used a 40mm, f2.8 STM, and a 70-200L f2.8 lens. Most of the images were made with an f-stop of 2.8 to 5.6. I used auto exposure bracketing with 7 exposures one quarter stop each way. I set a white balance using one of the many large leaves surrounding the Orchids. I did use a tripod, however they wanted me to mention that tripods are unfortunately not allowed during the show. In previous years I have gone back after the show opened to take more images and have been able to get decent exposures without stabilization.
If you at all close to St Louis, the show is worth a visit.
The Missouri Botanical Gardens Orchid Show is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from February 4 to March 26 at 4344 Shaw Boulevard; 314-577-9400 or www.mobot.org
If you would like to the rest of this photo series, you can find them on my website or in this piece by The Riverfront Times.
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Dan Wampler
Dan Wampler is a digital artist from St Louis, MO. Having been interested in art and photography since childhood, he spent most of adult life working for Kodak and in the portrait photography industry. A student of the works of Ansel Adams, Any Warhol, and David Hamilton, Dan attempted to keep a wide range of artistic style.
As an early adopter of digital imaging, he found it gave him a way to completely incorporate art and photography. Began shooting Digital Infrared in 2004, and had first camera converted in 2006. His work has been seen in numerous gallery shows, is featured in an iTunes app. He produces Infrared and natural color digital art for sale and teaches his post-production techniques online.
Dan is LifePixel's Creative Director, social media manager, lead blog author, main workshops and training sessions instructor. His images appear in this gallery and throughout the website.
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