A little while ago, Donna Bourdon told me she was going to start to photograph her beautiful dahlias that were looking peak. She asked me to send her one of my eBooks, I sent her three of them. A Guide to Creative Blurs, The Softer Side of Macro and Bloomin’ Ideas.

A bit about Donna. She is a confident, smart, determined, strong willed woman and needed no further instruction from me than what the eBooks provided. I know this about her because I have worked with her for years. She has been on so many workshops that I cannot remember them all. But what sticks out to me is her “take charge” behavior. That is why Donna is leading some tours for me. I know that she will teach what I have taught her, she has an eagerness to learn but also to teach what she has learned. Donna is an award-winning photographer with many credits to her name.

Since giving her the eBooks, she has posted on Facebook multiple dahlia images with a touch of creativity that caught my eye. Maybe because we have spent a lot of time talking about what is appealing in an image and how to get to the core of your subject. In any event Donna has continued to inspire me and to wow me… I asked her to share a few words and images with everyone. Here are a few of her lovely dahlia creations and a few of her thoughts:

From Donna:

I have had an interest in gardening almost as long as photography. I started out with roses and loved them for many years. But when I met my first dahlia, purchased in a bag from Lowe’s, I was hooked forever. There are so many forms, sizes, and colors that they often don’t even resemble each other enough for me to understand how they can all be dahlias. It wasn’t long before I needed to know more, so I found and joined a “support group,” The Tennessee Dahlia Society. Along the way I also met Denise Ippolito and began participating in as many of her workshops as humanly possible. I was intrigued with her flower images…. particularly since her subjects were often my loves…. the many forms of dahlias. When Denise added her flare, the dahlia personalities just popped.

Here are some of my favorite dahlias with Denise’s creative techniques applied.

To obtain a soft look for formal and informal decorative forms of dahlias, I use the in-camera multiple exposure feature that is offered in the Canon R5. This is a go-to technique for dahlia blooms that have soft, pink petals. This is shown below as the second strip of three photos.

Another form of dahlia is referred to as an inverted cactus. The petals curve inward and come to a sharp point, resembling a cactus. Just photograph the very tip then “zoom, twirl and warp"! Note the heart shape that appeared on the dahlia named Augustina using these techniques. Shown in the first image strip of three—the last photo in that group.

To draw attention to the center of a bloom, a sharp image can be used as the base image. Just add a layer, zoom it, mask it, and brush back the detail in the center. This produces a particularly striking image with a sharp center. Shown as the first image below.

We dahlia growers are very particular about the center of our flowers. We like them high and tight but when the flower “smiles” we refer to it as a “blown” center. A flower with a blown center will immediately be disqualified from a competition. But don’t overlook these beauties for your photographs. The “smiles” result in lots of interesting curly-Qs. My favorite creative image in this group is a multiple exposure of an informal decorative dahlia with a “blown” center and a beautiful curly-Q off-centered in the image. This is the second large photo shown.

All of these techniques are available in more detail in Denise’s e-books.

Now go out into the garden and have fun!