Mike Powell

Each time that I visit Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia, I spend some time in the glassed-in conservatory. At certain times of the year there is an indoor butterfly garden and there are always exotic orchids to see. Getting photos of the orchids is a challenge, because the light is limited, the shooting angles are constrained, and the room is hot and humid.

Here are a few of my attempts to capture the beauty of some of the orchids during a visit earlier in June. As you can see, I tried to vary my approach, sometimes going in close to focus on a single flower and sometimes pulling back to capture a cluster of them. I mostly avoided cluttered backgrounds—a large pot is visible in the final photo, but it is not very distracting

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.