Flower Photography In Tuscany
by Kit Heathcock
FLOWERS IN TUSCANY
It's springtime in Tuscany, early May. Arriving at Pisa airport the air smells
different, dryer, lighter, brighter with the alluring waft of some flower scent, even amid the concrete
hustle and bustle common to airports everywhere.
I'm travelling light, or as light as you can get when your camera bag is your hand
luggage and you couldn't quite leave the tripod behind. Not when the mission is a whistle-stop orchid
extravaganza, to try and photograph as many different sorts of orchid as we can find, in under a
week.
Heading off in a hire car, we leave Pisa behind and take to the hills, a winding,
twisting, and convoluted back road towards Siena. The air is fresher and the hint of flowers strengthens
until we are overwhelmed by the honeyed scent of broom, pouring in through the car windows. Every which
way you look there is a picture postcard scene, comprising the essential props of a Tuscan photo -
cypress trees, warm brick farmhouse and stone church, with gently curving green hills behind. Is it
possible to take a bad photograph in Tuscany? Well yes it is. If I give in to temptation and snap every
tempting vista, I'm going to find the bright midday light turns everything to dull monochrome, flattens
the colours and wastes all my film before I've even started on the orchids. I'll have to note the best
views and try to come back in early morning or evening light, when it all magically turns golden and
lucid.
We know where we are heading - south of Siena some friends have been walking
through veritable meadows filled with orchids. The challenge will be to find those places by car, along
the strada bianca (dirt roads) that crisscross the countryside. The other challenge is reaching our
destination, when every few yards we spot a flower spike on the roadside and have to screech to a halt to
identify it. Fresh from England any orchid at all is a rarity, but after an hour we are already blasé and
we no longer stop for 'just another spotted orchid'.
TUSCAN LANDSCAPE
The next day we are up bright and early at our first spot on the lower slopes of Monte
Amiata. There is an open clearing surrounded by stunted oak trees and bingo - a lavish sprinkling of
bee orchids, my favourites, with their furry lip that looks just like a bumble bee. Now the advantage of
early morning light and sparkling dewdrops is offset by the fact that I'll have to lie down in the damp
grass to get a good angle. Remember to bring a waterproof next time. I should use a tripod, but first I'm
looking through the camera to choose the finest specimens and best setting. Some I need to trim the grass
around, either with nail scissors or by gentle flattening down. A wide aperture will take care of the
background but I don't want any blurring of grass waving in the foreground. Sort out tripod, get light
reading and bracket, bracket, bracket.
These are pre-digital days, I'm using tranny and colour saturation has to be spot
on, so to be safe I'll do five half-stop brackets. I can't reshoot from back home once I've processed it
all and seen the results. This also means I have to be selective, I'll only get six shots to a roll of
film, so just the best flowers and best angles.
Moving across the clearing, as the light strengthens, I find a fly orchid, this
time impersonating a bluebottle fly, not as pretty as the bee orchid but striking, then setting up for
that shot I nearly tread on a fragrant orchid, delicate pink flowers. I have to be quick now before the
light gets too harsh and contrasty. Three in the bag and it's off to a bar to get a second breakfast of
cappuccino and brioche. The film is safe in a cool box - hot cars at midday don't do much for it! The
middle of the day is for scouting the evening's shoot, then lunch and a siesta. The light won't be good
again until about 5 o'clock, but we have to be in the right place by then to make the most of it. So it's
driving the back roads again between Buonconvento and Casciano di Murlo.
Over the next few days we cross off our list the green-winged orchids, pyramidal orchid,
lady orchid, the monkey orchid with its long tail, a man orchid - not so easy to spot with its
greeny-yellow colouring, but now we've got our eye in the orchid shape leaps at us from all sides. A lot
of these orchids are also supposed to be common in Britain but I've never seen any of them there, here in
Italy they're everywhere - must be something to do with farming methods, pesticides and all the rest.
Here there are a lot of small-scale farmers, subsistence farming is dying out but huge commercial
agricultural companies haven't taken over. There are also a lot of woodland and unfarmable hilly slopes.
Orchids on the roadsides though, that's just showing off!
At the end of the week it's back to Pisa, hand in the hire car, just slightly dented from
overly-steep off-road experiences, and try to persuade the security people to hand search the film bag
rather than X-ray it, which could fog the film. They promise that their machine is so modern and
foolproof that you can put film through safely but I'm not taking any chances and eventually they agree.
So only one more hurdle to go, the lab back home, processing and seeing what I've got - that heart
stopping moment before opening the envelope, the huge sigh of relief when you see images on the film,
then examining each one carefully and remembering the scent of the Italian countryside in
springtime.
Copyright 2005 Kit Heathcock
About the Author
Sometime flower photographer, keen observer of the resonances of life and fulltime mother.
Born in the UK but now living on a farm in the southern hemisphere. Contributor to the creation and
maintenance of A
Flower Gallery one of the homes of chakra flower art.
|
