Tom's Patio O' Plants

A neighbor of mine, who had done beautifully well with his plants this Summer, wanted to preserve their moment in the sun in pictures, before they lose their luster in the upcoming Autumnal days. Hearing from another neighbor that I fancied picture taking, was a Photographer who enjoyed and loved photography, he inquired if I would be so kind as to grab some shots of his bounty for him. I agreed, saying I would be happy to.

This Last Roll is of my doing so for him.

Tom's Patio O' Plants II

The complex in which I live, are pretty much just little mini one bedroom townhomes. I have lived here, off and on, for about three to four years, liking it for it's very nice quietness, peaceful little courtyards, and the fact that each place has it's own little parcel of land in which one can plant.

My first Summer here, and my first attempt at ever doing some outdoor planting and gardening, I grew some sunflowers, which did all right. My second year, I never planted anything, but was the first year I introduced all my indoor plants to the outdoors, placing them all about, and they loved it, prospering big time.

After my move back here in the dead of Winter earlier this year, sadly killed off half my plants, only three surviving, but barely, all growth needing to be cut all the way back to the soil, hoping that they would come back to life. Thankfully they did, and have grown back to a nice healthy specimens... well, two out of three of them have, my peace lily plant, shows life, but not a robust showing, and certainly nothing close to what it achieved last Summer... but at least is still there, and hopefully will, slowly but surely, regain it's hearty growth.

Tom's Patio O' Plants III

After grabbing the two prior shots, as they were, on his patio, we began moving them out individually and placing them more in the morning light to get some other shots of them.

Tom's Patio O' Plants IV

My mind is pathetic, I had attained one of these flowering plants last Summer, for an ex-coworker who was moving back to her home state of Tennessee, and had kept a shoot or two of it for me also, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is called.

It was one of the casualties of the move, that I no longer have... though mine was of a white flowering variety.

Tom's Patio O' Plants V

Of all the shots I took, I found the ones placed not in the full direct sunlight were the best, but rather the ones we took in the filtered sunlight in the shadow of a tree.

I did tweak all the photos in post, as if it isn't obvious, I desaturated the background to make the colors of the plants themselves take more center stage, as well as giving the color saturation of the plants themselves a little boost.

Tom's Patio O' Plants VI

Don't know why I took and posted this second shot of this container... forgetful I guess.

Tom's Patio O' Plants VII

Here they are, all towered out in front of his place in our mock shooting set on the sidewalk.

I just used the available daylight, and also a silver reflector to bounce some light onto the shadow areas.

Was interesting in post to see how, for the most part, the sunlight was absorbed by the leaves of the plants, but those purplish ones in the lower front, were highly reflective of sunlight... I also shot with a circular polarizer on the lens, and would keep trying to cut down the light, reflection on those purple plants, but no matter what angle I took, it never seemed to produce any effect in reducing it whatsoever.

Tom's Patio O' Plants VIII

I like this shot, but not the angle in which I took it, which I don't know why I did it at this screwball angle... though I guess, looking at it, it was to get them all into the frame... Again, with the 85mil being the only lens in my arsenal to shoot with, sort of dictates how and the way I shoot.

Tom's Patio O' Plants VIIIa

This is the same image as the previous, except I just cropped in more tightly upon the plants.

Tom's Patio O' Plants IX

This roll, by the way, I am not counting towards my usual shooting, where I alternate between black and white and color film, and color being the one I was continuing to swim in... this was just a little side shoot that I thought I would just throw on here and post... my camera is loaded with another roll of color for me to shoot.

Tom's Patio O' Plants X

After getting enough of the wide coverage shots of all the plants, I just started doing my usual of focusing more on the details of the plants.

It's funny, I gave Tom the CD of all the images I took for him, and he insisted upon paying me for my time, which he was feeling extra bad, because I shot for a good couple hours... "I wasn't expecting you to shoot for so long", he said... and I had to laugh and explain to him, that that is just me, how I shoot and do things, I am not the most speedy guy in pretty much anything, and always take a relaxing, leisurely time in shooting... more often than not, especially when I am shooting.

So, not that he was in the first place, my expecting that he pay me, he's my neighbor, I was happy to do it for him, because photography is what I do, and just so happened that we were neighbors and he was able to have the advantage of that, and I was happy to share what I do for him.

But even if for some reason I had been going into it, like I was still working for hire and pay, I always had that I was never paid for by the hour or whatnot, and always just had the flat hiring fee that covered my shooting for them, no matter it being a few hours, or a whole entire day... I wouldn't begin to ask people to pay me per hour or something, because I know me! I know that I take my time and shoot and do things in my own way and pace, and they shouldn't have to pay for me being me, and that way. Honestly, I have felt more than once, that my clients were finished with the shoot long before I have been... I can keep on shooting forever, I'm a Photographer, I love photography and love to shoot, I'll keep on going until you stop me from doing so... which is normally how my shoots would end.

Tom's Patio O' Plants XI

Here, you can clearly see the use of the silver reflector upon the back, shadow side of the plants... I love shooting with natural light... if I would have had another reflector, I most likely would have had it placed, and reflecting upon them also from another direction.

I have two diffusers, and in the previous tight shot image, one of them was used to soften the light in that one... I think that was the only time I used the diffuser... but on the second diffuser, is what I had the silver reflector wrapped around it's frame... it's one of those all-in-one contraptions - diffuser, with a white, silver, gold reflector that can be zippered onto/around it also.

Tom's Patio O' Plants XII

Tom has said that he would give me one of the purple plants for my time... I won't argue! I'll take a plant any time!

That's the way I think the world should be like, that old way of bartering services, eliminating the evil of money... the world would be a much better place, and far better off if mankind would do that.

Yeah, I know - how un-Capitalistic and un-American of me.

I was born into an entirely wrong universe, and/or at an entirely wrong time... this life/world isn't close to being that far along and evolved for such an existence/life/world to exist.

Tom's Patio O' Plants XIII

Standing on a stool, above them looking straight down.

Tom's Patio O' Plants XIV

I don't think his lily, which, like me, he also got from a funeral of a parent, I don't think has been seen in any of the previous photos... well, here it is now.

Probably only because I noticed that where it was sitting just happened to be resting in the shadow of the tree, with the sun spilling through it upon the lone flower, so I naturally focused in on capturing that.

Tom's Patio O' Plants XV

All of the plants, pretty much that you have seen up to now, were all in planters that were placed about his patio, with only a few actually planted within the actual tiny parcel of soil that each person has in front of their place... I think these are some of those... though they also may not be actually in the ground but in planters placed atop the soil.

Tom's Patio O' Plants XVI

This lone white daisy like flower, I do believe is his neighbor's and not his, as it was on his neighbor's plot of soil side... the background reddish plant, is his though.

Tom And His Patio O' Plants

And there is the man himself, amongst his plants.

Okay, so that is it. Again, this is kind of an unofficial Last Roll, as I just felt like I would just also post these photos I took for him... and my next Last Roll will be back to another color roll, and shooting whatever it is I next decide to capture.

Until then, all the best to you, thanks for visiting, and happy shooting!