I recently took an online course from the Minnesota Arboretum about photographing flower buds. It is something I never thought about doing before; I’ve always concentrated on flowers for my macro work. So these super macros of lavender and agave buds are some of my first attempts. After some experimentation, I found the best combination for me is an off-camera speedlight (flash) with a 16mm extension tube on my 30mm Olympus macro lens.
My first attempt at this technique was the lavender bloom. The photo shows the detail of a flowering plant in a formative stage with one developed flower and the nascent buds. This whole blossom is about an inch from top to bottom so this really shows off the results of using the macro lens and an extension tube. This photo really is larger than life!
The other two images are of buds on a center-stripe agave stalk that grew in our front yard. The stalk was about 8 feet in length and many of our neighbors called it the agave from outer space because it bent over on a 90-degree angle to avoid the shade from nearby trees. We had to tie it up so it could get through its whole blooming cycle.
However, the buds and anthers on it were minuscule. I used the same technique as I used for the lavender, making for some dramatic shapes and shadows.
