Orchid Obsession
Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall. 20:19. 17 June 2021.
Photographing flowers with a long lens is so much better than a macro… my obsession with orchids and how to get the best images
t is fair to say I have a healthy obsession with quite a few creative pursuits, but one annual shoot to which I have returned is my passion for photographing wild orchids. This began back in 2007, when I realised capturing spring landscapes could naturally turn towards macro photography.
I was surprised to find that I lived in a fairly orchid rich environment – thanks to my botanist friend David Fenwick. Not as diverse as the chalky downs of Hampshire and Kent, but Devon contained a few targets to get me going.
The first thing I did was make my first mistake – buying a macro lens. When I was out in Hong Kong, I got a Tamron 180mm macro and although the results were a good start, it never gave me the dreamy out of focus effects I was starting to see in magazines. Soon I learned that the lens of choice was actually not a macro lens at all, but an EF 600mm f/4l, usually used by a wildlife photographer on sabbatical. When set wide open, flowers emerge from a sea of green. This was quite difficult to get my head round – how could a very long telephoto lens be a good macro lens?
It is all to do with depth of field. To create a dreamy out of focus effect, we are very aware that faster prime lenses are king, but we often forget about focal length. Focal length plays a massive part in how out of focus the foreground and backgrounds can appear. Every time I tried to get the whole flower head in focus with my macro lens, by increasing the aperture, the result was far from dreamy.
Using f/8 brought way too much detail to the out-of-focus background. But if I dropped the aperture to f/4, I found myself too close to the flower, with barely any of it in focus. I understood quickly that I needed long lens compression, the telescoping flattening of the subject. This is how to really separate flowers from their surroundings.
Now let us wind onwards to 2016 when I go the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6l IS Mk II. This wonderful lens paired very well with the EF Extender 1.4x, making a whopping 560mm of powerful handheld potential. It also has an amazing secret – the minimum focusing distance is just 900mm which beats the competition. You can get right on top of your subject and (with gentle persuasion to surrounding grasses) create beautiful portraits of flowers with the minimum of effort. No tripods. The results are stunning.
In June 2021, I found these bee orchids in safe spot on a roadside verge (there's a tip for you), in some long grasses. With the camera angle very low to the ground, at 560mm f/8, ISO1600, the result is an intimate and colourful portrait, as the colourful plants are enveloped in out-of-focus greens. Another great tip is to focus through the grasses, with the bottom of the lens completely obscured by the blades. Switch the image stabilisation on, ensure you have AI Servo AF on, so any change in focal length from your own movement or soft summer winds is continually recalculated.
Also make sure to take a low-speed continuous burst of three shots, to ensure sharpness. Remember, it's all about the subject matter – choose very carefully indeed. These environments are delicate and deserve respect, so you must minimise any disturbance. And perhaps find a botanical friend to help you out, just like I did all those years ago.
“Soon I learned that the lens of choice was actually not a macro lens at all, but in fact an EF 600mm f/4l”