Tribute To Dahlias

My favourite end-of-season flower is definitely the Dahlia, it is among the flowers that gives an explosion of colours from summer into late autumn. Native to Mexico and Central America, it has been spreading in Europe since the late 1700s, thanks to an abbot working at the Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid who received dahlia seeds. When the first flower bloomed, it was given the name Dalia in honor of the botanist Anders Dahl.

A curiosity? The Dahlia was imported to Europe for culinary purposes - yes, the tuber was considered edible. However, it was soon realized that the beauty of this flower was more suited to garden decoration.

With the passage of time, Dalia also became a woman's name - elegant, refined and very sweet.

The elegance of the many species of this plant and the variety in its colours make it a much-loved flower, and one can always find a place in the garden or in a vase to be amazed by its unique beauty. There are many shapes and sizes of this plant and the varieties are astonishing: the blossoming of Dahlias is equivalent to small fireworks in vivid colours - from yellow to red to white, pink and purple. The petals also have very different shapes and are often double.

How can you not love them? I grow some in my garden, but for a few years now my greatest wish has been to go to Villa Taranto in Verbania, Italy to admire their Dahlia labyrinth: a spectacle of more than 1,700 plants of over 350 varieties! A play of colours, sizes and shape.

Villa Taranto is an hour's drive from my home and I have already been there several times, especially in spring when tulips bloom in the labyrinth. I had never been during the flowering of the Dahlias and I am really happy to have been there this year.

I could have stood there for hours looking at them! Of Dahlias I like the symmetries, the jaunty petals, the curls they form, the details, the colours of the many varieties.

That is why I chose to photograph them with my first Lensbaby lens, the Velvet85, which has a macro function. Its unique flare, at wide apertures, makes it an exceptional lens that I prefer for my flower photography. The weather was cloudy, I was immersed in a natural soft box, what more could I ask for?

I very much hope to be able to organise a Dahlia photo day again next year, where I will definitely try out the Lensbaby Sweet50, DoubleGlassII or SoftFocusII lenses that I also love for my FloralFineArt project - in this case I will probably use the macro lenses, also from Lensbaby.

Every now and then, you ask me about my photographic equipment: as I have already written in other blogs, I prefer simplicity: I choose 1 - at most 2 lenses/lenses to be light, I do not use a tripod to photograph flowers, and I photograph them mainly not in direct sunlight to better preserve colours and details. When photographing flowers, I always use a low f, never more than f4. The portion of the photo in focus is therefore small, and when shooting freehand, it is easy to be out of focus. For this reason I help myself with focus peaking, I shoot quite fast, at least 1/200 - 1/500 and if necessary I raise the ISO (with the Sony this is not a problem). I also help myself with the Zebra Pattern, which shows me the extremely bright spots, so as not to risk burning out. I also always shoot in Raw so that I have more possibilities in post processing.

Lensbaby lenses are artistic and I am in love with them precisely because of their aberrations that make the photo unique and dreamy. True, using such a lens requires a bit of effort; you have to shoot manually and know how the lens sees. But the satisfactions are too many and enthusiasm always wins out over the initial efforts! Personally, when I buy a new Lensbaby lens I leave it attached to the camera for at least a month, so I get to know it and feel it mine.

Do you have questions about my photography or Lensbaby lenses? Write to me and we can get in touch or, if you live nearby, even meet up. Photography gives you unique emotions, try it too! ... and if you want, come with me.

I would like to end this blog with a sentence by Fabrizio Caramagna that I really like:

‘I like shady gardens. The silent soul of the little walls and the colours of the dahlias make me feel good. Like everything is in the right place'.