I recently discovered a new love in the pressing and photographing of plants. I love the hunt for new specimens almost more than I love the challenge of interpreting their natural beauty in an image. It’s an exercise in slowing down and seeing the beauty in the quiet, unremarkable moments I so often take for granted. That said, plants are simultaneously the hardest and easiest subject to photograph in that they can’t collaborate with me to help me flesh out an abstract idea or mood I may have. Rather, they simply exist as they are and I can either figure out how to capture their beauty or not.

While this is a beautiful burden to bear, it’s a burden nonetheless. Noticing the plants and being intentional about capturing them in a frame is one thing. Knowing where to take an image in post is where I can really get buried. The above images are case in point. The header image shows the specimen with a simple contrast and color adjustment. It’s stunning as it exists, but it’s more of a representational image that one might find in a textbook. As I begin editing the image and taking it out of the realm of simple representation I get overwhelmed by the endless ways I could re-interpret the specimen (look at the next 9 images to see what I mean).

This struggle is there every time I sit down to edit a shoot. Each image or set or shoot could be executed in a multitude of different ways, each expressing completely different moods, which in turn draws out very different emotions in the viewer. It’s a powerful position to be in and I’m often overcome with the task of picking “the best” path. But I suppose this is something all creatives deal with 🤷🏼‍♂️