Three Days in May

The garden is wide awake from its winter sleep. Around the house, early-season perennials are healthy and growing. The Lily of the Valley is the latest to bloom. 

They are petite plants. Growing low to the ground and in bunches. Known for their distinctive fragrance, they are completely wonderful to look at.

My grandmother planted them a long time ago. She called them her ‘birthday flower’. Along the way, she taught me a few things about them and the other perennials she had in the garden. Of late, I’ve been helping them grow.

The Lily of the Valley plants get divided and moved around every three years. In the last round, I set a long row of them in the front row of the side garden. I like reshaping the garden with photography in mind, and that is a good spot. Any extra plants are shared with the neighbors, as grandmother did. 

None of my early photographs of Lily of the Valley were to my liking. I have arranged bouquets. Their light fragrance brings springtime into the house, but the still-life cut flower images never felt right. My attempts in the garden were not what I was looking for, either. Any combination of oversharp, generic, or too bright applies. 

Over this past winter, I reviewed my previous images and made a couple of decisions. To take a Lily of the Valley photograph that I would want to look at, I need better control of available natural light, a stronger composition, and to think like there is T-Max 100 black and white film in the camera.  

May 11th: The Lily of the Valley are in full bloom. Today’s overcast skies bring soft light, with no glare on the white flowers. It’s time to photograph. I have a particular set of flowers in mind. 

The camera bag will stay in the house. As I step out the door, an older Nikon with an even older 200mm lens hangs around my neck. The tripod is on my shoulder. A remote shutter release and a lens cloth are in my pocket. Under my left arm is an old yoga mat, and a little further down, a cup of coffee is in my hand. I couldn’t be more ready.

The tripod was set just above ground level, and the mat went down. The camera was angled slightly upward to show the inside of the flower bells. I like this composition. While my cameras exposure was getting fine tuned, the breeze picked up. When making adjustments to compensate for the change in the weather, the feeling in the photograph was lost.  

Today’s session became a practice day. The coffee cup was half full when I returned to the house. Until tomorrow.

May 12th: An all-day rainy day. The garden likes it. Today’s indoor highlight? Remembering grandmother on her birthday with a big slice of chocolate cake.

May 13th: It’s a perfect morning for flower photography. Low-hanging morning clouds offer diffused light at its finest. If there’s a breeze, it’s not noticeable. The flowers are still in full bloom.  

Lily of the Valley grows no taller than ten inches. My tripod was set as it was the other day. Close to the ground and about three feet from the flowers. With the yoga mat in place, I took a sip of coffee and got on the ground, and wiggled into position to look through the viewfinder and began composing a photograph. Yes, there is a live-image preview on the camera, but I’d rather not trust the display for this shot. 

The focal range is tight. My intention is sharp focus on the three and a half inches from the front of the flowers to the back of their stem. Their foliage is the only other thing in the frame. It will fade into a dark, soft background.  

To get that depth of field, the ISO is set to 100, and the aperture is f-22. The exposure time with those settings is 2 to 3 seconds. That’s challenging. I am glad there is no breeze this morning. 

With the cloud cover, my low and slow camera settings, and use of the Zone System, the light on the white bells of the flowers will be soft and balanced. Showing shape, form, and shadow along the curves and lines of the white flower bells of the Lily of the Valley. 

After the camera settings were locked in and the composition was feeling right, I took a handful of exposures. When I checked a preview image and zoomed in, I said aloud to no one but the flowers, “This is great. Thank you!”

At that moment, a neighbor was walking past the house. He might have heard me talking to the flowers or seen me lying on the ground. He called out, “Hey! Are you alright?”

The timing was perfect. With a laugh, I replied, “I’m good.”

It took a minute to get off the mat and walk over to say hello and thank him for checking on me. We shook hands, and every so often I’d press the remote shutter release. After sharing the short story about what I was doing on the ground and of a photograph that I have been wanting to take, we both got back to our day.

After one more look through the viewfinder, I listened to the birds, enjoyed the moment, and photographed for most of the next half hour.

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A week or so ago, I took some time to look at the photograph of the Lily of the Valley from that day. It’s hanging on a wall at the end of the hallway. 

When I finally got to the thought that my grandmother would like this photograph, too. I smiled a smile that she would recognize. Then sat down with the notebook that had my scribbled notes about those three days in May and started writing this.

I’m glad to share the photograph and the rest of the story with you.