How Do I Photograph Thee...

                                                                How do I photograph thee, let me count the ways...  This Amaryllis was a Christmas gift from one of Kathy's "Lunch Ladies."  There are five women who get together maybe once a month for lunch, and this year, one of them gave each of the other four, as well as one for herself,  one of these Amaryllis bulbs coated in wax.  This is unbelievable, but all the water and nutrients for the growth of the stem and the flowers that bloom from the bulb are all contained inside the wax covering of the bulb.  It arrives as just the ball with a bit of green sticking up, and after a few weeks it grew to look like this. 

                                   

Because it is such an amazing looking flower, I decided to make a backdrop of two pieces of gray colored matte board on the dining table and I set up a studio flash unit and tried to see how many different ways I could light the plant, because in photography, the lighting can make such a difference.  So here are four of the most interesting lighting setups.  Notice how different the plant looks in each of the lighting styles.  To see the differences more clearly, click on one of the photographs, and then use the left/right arrow keys to switch between the images.