A couple of weeks ago Lisa and I went to Redmond to the weekly farmer’s market.  I think it was the first one of the year so there were a lot of people there milling around checking out all the fresh fruit and vegetables, flowers and crafts.  We didn’t have any intention of actually buying anything we were just wandering.  However we saw some fuchsia hanging baskets and thought they would look lovely on the porch.

So we brought two baskets and struggled with them back to the car – they were massive.  One was still wrapped in paper but the other was opened up and hanging so we had to carry it up in the air.  Fortunately none of the fuchsia blooms had opened up so it was all stalks and leaves.

When we got them home we hung them up and inserted our sprinkler system hoses into the baskets.  I also turned on the sprinkler system so they would be watered every day.  Unfortunately though the water wasn’t coming out!  Lisa called the landscape guy who put the system in and arranged for him to come over and fix it.  It took nearly two weeks for him to get to us and I had to periodically manually water the baskets when I got home.

However once the water was back on the baskets started to get the sun and water they needed and these beautiful fuchsia flowers came into bloom.  I thought they’d make a great subject for a daily posting, so today I put the macro lens on the camera and went outside with a tripod.

Now these baskets were hanging from the porch roof and it was windy today and they were swinging and spinning around.  I tried to get a shot but my lens choice needed a long exposure with a small aperture and every shot had motion blur.  I really wanted the flower with a green background but it wasn’t happening out front.

So I cut one of the stems and took it into the back garden and pinned it to a light stand.  I had the trees behind as a nice green backdrop and tried again.  Once again the wind was killing me, I really needed the flowers to stay motionless for around 3 seconds so this wasn’t working either.

As a result I tried plan three.  I pulled the light stand into the house, shut the patio sliding door and tried again.  Now the flowers were not moving, but the ambient light meant that the flowers were dark for the outside exposure, or the green trees outside were blown out for the inside exposure.  ARRGGGGHHHHH!  So out came the lights.  I put a small softbox on the flowers to the right and some fill light off to the left and captured the picture below.

I’m sometimes asked how long I take on a picture.  Some are really quick, you walk up to the subject and away you go.  Other times you have to go out of your way to find the subject, and others like today you just have to work it until you get the shot you want.  I’d like to say that most times it’s quick, but that’s not the case, it’s usually a lot of work.

Even halo guys like a good sucker!