PHOTOGRAPHING PLANT LIFE. 107 



PHOTOGBAPHIXG PLANT LIFE. 



BY O. V. LANGE. 



Children of the sun's first glancing, 

 Flowers that deck the bounteous earth, 



Joy and mirth are round ye dancing; 

 Nature smiled upon your birth; 



Light hath veined your petals tender, 



And with hues of matchless splendor 

 Flora paints each lovely bell. 



Schiller. 



Some time ago, in connection with other work, I had the pleasure 

 of photographing specimens of seaweeds for Professor Setchel, in the 

 Botanical Department of the University of California. These sub- 

 jects for the camera strongly appealed to me because of their sim- 

 plicity, as well as gracefulness of outline. It occurred to me to try to 

 obtain studies in land flowers having extreme simplicity as one of the 

 dominant motives. In the course of my investigations it soon became 

 apparent that beauty of outline and shape in flowers were not the only 

 artistic values that might be sought after, and that much could be 

 added by the proper handling of the source of illumination, so as to 

 give the best possible relief in cliiaro-oscuro, thus assisting in the 

 rendition of texture, which constitutes much of the individuality and 

 peculiar charm of flowers. 



After much study and close observation, together with some suc- 

 cess in this direction, there still appeared to be something lacking. 

 I came to the conclusion that the feeling of atmosphere that should 

 surround my subject was lacking. Now, it is very easy to photograph 

 a flower with a hard, sharp outline, and seemingly pasted upon a black 

 cardboard; while to surround a flower with the feeling of having 

 relief and atmosphere can be accomplished only by a careful selection 

 of the background as to tint and texture. The subsequent lighting of 

 this background must sometimes be done independently of the sub- 

 ject in hand, so as to environ our blossoms with that peculiarly satisfy- 

 ing but indescribable charm called sentiment, without which they are 

 simply machine-made photographs, and not true pictures. 



In lighting the subject, one should not only seek a proper contrast 

 of high lights and deep darks, but should attend and be sensitive to 

 the variety of middle tints which are the ones that render texture best. 

 By texture I mean the surface appearance. If a flower is waxy, it 

 should retain the appearance of wax in the finished photograph; if 

 velvety, the feeling of velvet should be preserved; and if silky, the 

 peculiar sheen of silk should be found in the finished print. This is 



