This year I spent a few extra days in South Carolina with a private client, but she felt more like a best friend than a client. We will be chasing more images in the near future, I am sure of it.

After working with Margie for 2 days, I went back home to prepare for my group. Magnolias were on the ticket and wow did they provide us with countless hours of inspiration and photography. One in particular made my excitement level off the chart. Because it was the very first full bloom from the small 4 foot tree I had planted when I moved in. I won’t tell you which one of the images below it is— but it is definitely going on my wall. I’d love to hear which of the magnolia shots below you like best and which one you feel is worthy of a print (for my SC home).

My group and I spent one morning at my house drinking iced tea on my porch and working on images in my small event space (perfect for 8 photogs). And yes, they got to photograph my first bloom too! It was the best day of the trip in my opinion, we had lots of laughs and shared all kinds of stories. During our Magnolia Madness time we also visited other places and shot a few different scenes. I’ll try to share some of those in another post.

For all of my flower images in this post, I used natural light, handheld, manual mode and manual focus. I used a combo of my Voitlander lens (linked below) and my 12-40mm f/2.8 Olympus lens. I love the Olympus system for my flower photography because of its lightweight and manageability. The image stabilization is fantastic and allows me to shoot handheld without ever worrying about sharpness. The fully articulating screen helps me get into odd positions. I use reflectors to help direct or block the light. I also manually focus stack when needed but I do appreciate the softness that comes from shooting wide-open.

When I get back to NJ in a few days, I will head out to South Africa for tigers, wish us luck on our scouting expedition!

I love the addition of color that the stamen scars provide. For this image (above) and many others, I used my Voigtlander 17.5mm f0.95 Nokton Micro Four Thirds Lens with my Olympus system. I varied my apertures between 0.95 and f/4. This is a (manual focus only) lens and it does not beep when focus is achieved, it is a bit of a challenge to use but I have grown to love the challenge and the visual effect that the lens helps me capture. Of the many shots I took of this magnolia, I liked the photo directly above the best, the bokeh in the background really added to the overall image.