Frequency
The making of this photograph
Oh, I absolutely love this photograph, I don’t mean to be biased but it is one of my favourites I must admit. I’ve been learning a lot about energy in the past few years.
Our energy, how powerful it is, how we give energy, how we receive it. how it can never die, only changing form. It’s amazing, truly amazing and I felt it needed to be honoured. This photograph really speaks to me, I have it in my living room and enjoy its energy each and every day.
In the same breath I have been wanting to create a photograph that would serve as a memory for energies who may no longer have a physical aspect. We all have loved ones we have lost along the way, we all know people who have broken hearts.
The truth is in my belief, even though we can’t see their physical bodies any more, they are still very much here and are very much by our side.
We each have our own levels of knowledge and experience, beliefs and perceptions. Some may believe this, some may not – and either way is completely ok. One of my requirements for this photograph was to have it speak of our loved ones energy no matter what our beliefs may be.
What I needed
This photograph needed to be peaceful, safe and calm. It needed to be reassuring and loving. I had a visual in mind for a few weeks but couldn’t quite find anything in my searches around the farm that would suit.
I would wander around, hunting for something from nature that would hold all attributes to deliver the message in the most perfect way to no avail.
Sadly I am a novice gardener. I am much better at creating fine art photography I must say, but I am slowly learning. But the farm is good to me and tends to look after itself mostly. Nature provides and finds a way even if I don’t nurture the most ideal environment.
Even with the abundance of wildflowers and natures wonderful gifts, I kept going back to the white iceberg roses in the front garden, again they thankfully thrive in an environment that I don’t have the time to nourish as I should.
The white roses were close to what I was searching for but still didn’t hold what I needed. I could see that what I needed for this story would need to be sourced from a different location. The hunt continued and what I was looking for was to be found once again, at my beautiful friends flower shop. What would I do without her?
Isn’t she breathtaking!
My florist, Bec had found a beautiful white Dahlia with petals that curled and danced, almost like energy and light waves as they silently flow all around us. The Dahlia was the most beautiful pure white, and it was quite big which meant I had lots of room to dive in with my macro lens.
She asked if it may be something I was looking for to work with. I was pretty sure I had just found what I was looking for, this Dahlia was incredibly beautiful and really caught my attention.
I always do a quick search with my macro lens to see what elements of my subject stand out and if anything else presents itself that I may have missed or may need to be shown.
A few of the petals were in the process of uncurling and they held the most beautiful wave patterns and curved lines with a depth from the edges to the centre, as the petals were yet to flatten out as they will when fully extend.
Wild horses couldn’t drag me away from this section, this was my photo for the story I wanted to tell. I could see it clearly in my mind now and from here it was just a matter of refining the details that would make this image sing like an Angel. Perfect! I was looking through my view finder at perfection!
That is one of the happiest moments in the creative process, knowing that I had met my vision. It’s such an incredible feeling when I have a vision in mind and I can finally see it in front of me. Sometimes it can take ages for this to happen and often creatively I hit a wall of disappointment. But today was a good day! A very good day.
The colour white
The colour white gives us the energy of purity, simplicity, brilliance, possibility, clarity and protection. White is the only colour in this photograph and it varies in shade thanks to the depth of the uncurled petals.
Side lighting and a reflector I had placed to further accentuate the highlights and shadows and provides beautiful soft lighting telling the story in the desired way. Having this photograph using white and white alone enables us to actually also see the simplicity, purity and brilliance.
The way the main petals stand tall, not needing anything from anyone. Standing alone in their strength makes us feel like in her company, we will be protected in her grandeur.
The lower view point of the camera has us looking up at the petals. Respecting them and holding them in high regard. Making us feel smaller, giving the frequency and energy a greatness of a higher power. An almost majestic stance.
In this photographs written story, the opening line is “We are infinite. So brilliantly magical, so full of secrets.” Having newly released fresh petals that hadn’t completely uncurled and were still almost folded in half allows us to put ourselves deeper into the image where those secrets are hiding.
Here the focus slowly fades away in those depths which lends to the attribute of our energy being infinite. You can’t focus on the back, deeper end of the petal (as the focus is not clear) as in its softness, it goes on endlessly into infinity.
Always and forever.
Further details
The few petals towards the back and top of the frame are a very similar shade of white to the background further pushing the aspect of our energy being infinite. The softness and similar shade of white means you can’t tell exactly where the Dahlia ends and the background begins. In this regard the Dahlia simply goes on, it continues endlessly.
I framed this photograph in portrait/vertical orientation to allow the petals to reach up towards the top of the frame. Searching and reaching endlessly. Continuing their ‘waves’ and sending the frequency further on outside the photograph. Symbolising how our light, our energy has the power to touch the far corners of the globe.
As your eye moves through the frame you will most likely go through the process of looking from the bottom, and then looking up. We often associate heaven or our Angels, spirits as being above us, so looking up was an important factor in the photographs orientation.
The curves on the petals are not uniform. Not one individual petal is the same as the ones around it. Each is unique and invites us to feel the collective company of many. We see the main petal, the main frequency, and feel as though we can join the others and be a part of this greatness too, as we will one day be.
Thank you so much for being here,
The Humble Hunter x
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