The summer of 2018 in western North Carolina was super rainy and warm.  For 2018, the region set an all-time rainfall record.  The summer was not a good time for landscape photographers.  Since I predominantly lean toward long exposure water photography, it was hard to find anything but flooding streams and raging waterfalls.  Many people might think we'd be in heaven but not in my case.  The water was just too high and brown with mud runoff.

So what to do when its raining hard but you still want to keep your photography juices flowing?  Well, in my case I tried my hand at still life photography.  I already had two speed lights and umbrellas.  I went to a local florist and picked up a few flowers to photograph.

I find still life photography so different than shooting landscapes.  The photographer is in complete control of all aspects of the shoot, i.e., set up, composition, background and, most importantly, the lighting.  Post processing is another very important aspect of finishing the photograph.  A few of my results are posted below.  For my first attempt, I was generally pleased but you don't see how many throw aways I also had.  But it was fun nonetheless and I learned quite a bit.  Main thing is that while umbrellas will provide nice soft light, its not as good as using a good soft box.

I'll dive into flash photography a bit more in future posts.  I'm in no way an expert in this aspect of photography but I'll try to share a few tidbits I have managed to learn.  The key is to try and have fun learning another branch of photography.