Wilsonara Pacific Perspective photos and timelapse

[Daenerys]

Many thanks to WhiteRabbit for the ID here.

After a month of growing the spike, my oncidium intergenic is finally in full bloom.

I tried to make my first timelapse video of the spike growing here: Wilsonara Pacific Perspective Time-Lapse - YouTube

It's far from perfect, but I am quite pleased with the results as a first attempt. Lessons learned from the experience include:

• Staking up the spike early on will prevent it drifting down over the field of view, or needing to rotate the photos to keep the spike in alignment
  
• Even when the buds don't look like they're developing much... they can still be moving wildly around in relation to the stem
  
• It can be difficult to predict which direction blooms will end up facing when they finally open
  
• I should try to keep the background completely free of clutter to avoid random items moving in and out of the scene
  
• when the flowers do begin to open, they can unfold over the course of only a couple of hours (and often inconveniently early in the morning)
  
• If I try this again, I will be taking pictures with higher frequency

If anyone has any more tips on how to make a more polished looking timelapse of orchids, I'd love to hear suggestions. I do realize that the main thing I'd need is an automated shutter, but I'm trying to avoid purchasing any more equipment at the moment. Maybe in the future.

In the meantime, here are some more still photos of the blooms. The flowers are fragrant and 2.5" across on a foot-long spike. It's a stunted blooming, but the orchid is recovering from massive root loss, and I wasn't expecting any flowers this season at all. One of the things that really struck out at me about this orchid, is how different the flowers look based on the lighting used in the photograph.

[Bud]

Beautiful flowers. Are they fragrant? I like your photography both indoors and outdoors and different angles of the flowers and the full plant. I wish I could help you with time lapse photography...I think you need to go to a workshop at the community hall on 14th street and 8th avenue where some professional photographers help people learn new skills...

[Daenerys]

Thanks Bud!

Yeah, the flowers are quite fragrant. It's a weird spicy/musky sort of scent. I think it's gotten fruitier as the flowers matured, but I'm still not sure if I find it particularly pleasant.

[billc]

You can train these so the flowers all face the same way. As soon as the spike is emerging, set your stake into the mix as near to the spike as you can.
Mark the pot with a piece of tape on the side so you can always keep it facing the same direction. Any time you move it for watering, make sure the tape is in the same original position when you put the plant back.
As the spike grows, keep it close to the stake with ties or clips. If you are religious about it, you can get the spike absolutely straight to 30+ in, and your blooms will all be facing the same way.

Bill

[orchidsarefun]

Originally Posted by billc

You can train these so the flowers all face the same way. As soon as the spike is emerging, set your stake into the mix as near to the spike as you can.
Mark the pot with a piece of tape on the side so you can always keep it facing the same direction. Any time you move it for watering, make sure the tape is in the same original position when you put the plant back.
As the spike grows, keep it close to the stake with ties or clips. If you are religious about it, you can get the spike absolutely straight to 30+ in, and your blooms will all be facing the same way.

Bill

thats a good tip, but no infallible. I have a wilsonara aloha sparks with 2 spikes. With above regime the 1 spike mostly had flowers align towards the light, but with the 2nd spike its any which way. They are in a SF window. I am not sure what would happen under lights.

[WhiteRabbit]

cool video!