My very talented colleagues Amanda Brame and Noriko Choy worked for two days to create the floral displays for a party this past week and I took rather a lot of photographs of their work and works.
The pieces – table decorations and large centre-pieces – had to contain sunflowers, make a stunning autumnal display but for many reasons, add a Latin twist – well, something more exotic than just Chrysanthemums and Dahlias (which were incidentally, entirely absent in these pieces and not missed one jot!).
All manner of English hedgerow, home-grown Cutting Garden and Southern Hemisphere goodies were on display and the results are quite extraordinary.
What I hadn’t of course remembered was that I had set the camera onto a ‘Vivid’ setting to capture the dahlias in the Cutting Garden earlier, so these images are all rather hyper-real and well, Vivid. With a capital ‘V’.
I could very easily have, post production, dialled down the saturation and given a more realistic rendition, toned down the fire as it were. But photography is all about experimentation, so I also played around with the aperture and shutter speed – to see what I would see. I was using my macro lens, which was fine for the close-ups naturally, but meant I had to step right back to capture the whole, it being a fixed lens.
I used the mirrors too for reflected images, and gaps through bars and grills where they might present something interesting.
I would add that even without these enhancements and trickery, the technical skill and artistry of the florists themselves was amazing.
Sunglasses on – and I hope you enjoy!
The Teddington Gardener 
Perfect artwork. Thank you for sharing.
Beautiful bright blooms in a wonderful setting, loved your photographs and the floristry is amazing, taking note