Three Masdevallias

[Connie Star]

Wow! I really like the way you shot them, and the orchids are lovely, of course. I'm curious what lenses you are using. I've always done macro-photography of small critters that are usually moving and I use the on camera flash- works pretty well for wee beasties but not at all well for orchids. The penlight trick intrigues me.
I enjoyed your autumn photos too. You sure live in a beautiful part of the world!

[ronaldhanko]

Thanks, Connie, for looking and commenting. For photographing flowers I use a Tamron 2.8 90mm macro lens with tripod and supplemental lighting. Outdoors and for larger flowers I also use a 70-300mm lens which nicely blurs the background when used properly. I do have a ring-flash as well, but haven't been using it very much lately. It isn't a bad idea to have a penlight in your camera bag even for outdoor work. It can give you some nice effects and lighten the flowers against a dark background. It can affect your white balance, however, since most have a yellowish light.

[Connie Star]

You and I have similar lenses- on night hikes in the jungle with my hubby he often uses a head lamp to find things- and then I photograph them. I will have to try it with orchids. I think it would work well. Of course you can rebalance with PS