Part of the point of my Central America trip was to visit some of the places that I skipped on my first trip through 7 years ago. I had a list written of all the places I just didn’t have time to get to the first time around and made those places priorities. One of the places that I really wanted to check out was Boquete, Panama. I hadn’t heard much about the town other than that it was a hot spot for expats and retirees. When I arrived I was pleasantly surprised. For the most part, it seems that Boquete is a bit of a retirement community with a slowly growing number of backpackers sticking around as well. In fact, you are almost more likely to hear English being spoken from a restaurant table as you are Spanish. However, the town has a beautiful setting in the middle of a valley on very fertile soils. Nearly everyone in town has a beautiful garden which makes the flower photographer a very happy person. I’ll have a post up about a quirky garden in Boquete called “El Explorador” in the next couple weeks but for now here’s a floral sample from Boquete that I’ve called “Moody Flowers.”
How I Got this Shot
Shooting flowers is tricky since basically anyone can do it. For me, the difference between a good flower picture and a great one is the mood portrayed. To portray a mood you need to look at the scene, the colours, the contrast, the light you have available and then work with it. If it’s a very bright flower with a lot of light on the background you might make a happy looking scene. Or, if you have a bit of a messy dark scene like I had in this photo you might want to portray a dark mood. Technically, the only thing I can say is to not shoot straight down on flowers. Find an angle that gives depth to your image. Also, don’t just shoot any flower; search through the garden for not only the perfect flower, but the perfect background as well.
In the post processing of this image I increased the level of blacks to enhance the mood, but other than that I didn’t touch it.
This photo was taken on a Canon 60d with a 70-200mm lens. The focal length was 200mm, aperture was f/4, the shutter speed was 1/320 seconds and the ISO at 100.