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Giant Orchid Himantoglossum robertianum
e6filmuser
Registered Users Posts: 3,378 Major grins
This species used to be in the genus Himantoglossum, was moved to Barlia and seems, according to some sources, to be back where it started. It is widespread but rare in the Mediterranen region but forms large colonies in Rhodes.
It is a giant, in that it can grow up to more than 1 metre high although the flowers are about 4cm long. It is said to thrive in sunshine and to be strongly fragrant. The cultivated plant illustrated here is fragrant but only close up. Perhaps it needs sunshine to develop the scent.
I was warned not to let my plants set seed, as they would then die. Last year, their first flowering season for me, I hand pollinated and there were numerous bulging seed pods. The two bulbs sprouted recently and are now growing vigorously, with one flowering. They don't seem to understand that they are dying!
Orchid flowers are very three-dimensional, with all sorts of twists and folds, making lighting difficult. This shot was illuminated with twin flash, one on an L-bracket to the left and tilted downwards (in relation to the camera body, when in landscape orientation). The second gun was on a clamp on the barrel of the lens.
The clamp is usually used on the non-moving parts of my Kiron 105mm but that is being repaired. The lens used takes the clamp nicely but only on its focusing ring, which rotates readily under the weight. This meant that my right hand supported and operated the camera while my left upper arm took the weight of the L-bracket and my left hand supported the lens and prevented rotation of the focus ring. It was quite a tiring session!
The pollinia are very visible in this flower:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollinium
EM-1 (manual mode), Leitz Wetzlar Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm, 1/250 f11 or f16 ISO 200, TTL RC flash, hand-held.
Harold
It is a giant, in that it can grow up to more than 1 metre high although the flowers are about 4cm long. It is said to thrive in sunshine and to be strongly fragrant. The cultivated plant illustrated here is fragrant but only close up. Perhaps it needs sunshine to develop the scent.
I was warned not to let my plants set seed, as they would then die. Last year, their first flowering season for me, I hand pollinated and there were numerous bulging seed pods. The two bulbs sprouted recently and are now growing vigorously, with one flowering. They don't seem to understand that they are dying!
Orchid flowers are very three-dimensional, with all sorts of twists and folds, making lighting difficult. This shot was illuminated with twin flash, one on an L-bracket to the left and tilted downwards (in relation to the camera body, when in landscape orientation). The second gun was on a clamp on the barrel of the lens.
The clamp is usually used on the non-moving parts of my Kiron 105mm but that is being repaired. The lens used takes the clamp nicely but only on its focusing ring, which rotates readily under the weight. This meant that my right hand supported and operated the camera while my left upper arm took the weight of the L-bracket and my left hand supported the lens and prevented rotation of the focus ring. It was quite a tiring session!
The pollinia are very visible in this flower:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollinium
EM-1 (manual mode), Leitz Wetzlar Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm, 1/250 f11 or f16 ISO 200, TTL RC flash, hand-held.
Harold
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Comments
Thanks
You give me great credit for steady hands. No, probably f16 certainly no wider than f11, maybe in between.
Harold
Brian V.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
Thanks, Brian.
I think they, as species, not cultivated hybrids, are more a triumph of reproductive evolution (c.f. mantids).
Harold