One of the prettiest flowers, I think, are Lewisia (named after Mr. Lewis). When I bought these, I didn’t know anything about them. I first thought they were a type of succulent, even. Upon realizing they weren’t, I thought we’d be able to enjoy them for one spring, much like any other flowers we get for the garden. But they’ve been with us for 3 years now.
The Lewisia are also where I started experimenting with my late grandfather’s kaleidoscopic filter. I don’t know if he ever used it himself – he did like to experiment with multiple exposures and other trickery – but when I saw it in one of the boxes containing his things, I thought: this could be cool. It reminded me a little of some of those multiple lomography cameras.
So I started with the Lewisia flowers. My shots then were not that great. I was just trying stuff. Most of that shoot was blurry and not in an interesting way. But at the time I thought they were awesome! Haha.
And when I wanted to reshoot them, they were already starting to dry up and shrivel. Damn it. But this year they bloomed marvelously. And so I tried again. And got it right this time.
I don’t think my grandfather bought the filter with flowers in mind. I think he thought it would be funny to take a photo of my grandmother with a gazillion eyes. That was his jam. But I like it for flowers because of their shapes and colors. Every image is different, always a surprise. In a way it feels a bit like film. So I’m sticking with flowers and plants and the occasional abstract for now.
…although maybe I’ll honor grandpa and grandma properly one day, and aim to capture a gazillion eyes with one of my willing mini-models. I think he’d like that very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very… much.
