Thursday, December 17, 2009

Adventures in Flowers

Some of you know that my Mom was a florist. So....having helped out during busy seasons (I will refrain from talking about Mother's Day at a flower shop) I have a heartfelt appreciation for florists and the talent, hard work, and mess it takes to make something beautiful come to life out of a tangle of plants in five gallon buckets.

Thus, when John Herron of Herron House commissioned me to create a new image of him to be used in his ad for Triad Weddings magazine, I was excited. John's an amazing wedding floral designer. His resumee reads like a "Who's Who" in the floral and design industry. He has both a creative mind and an awareness of what photographs well, which makes me happy. I've always admired his work, and love his outgoing, spunky attitude. If you ever need a smile, John Herron has one ready for ya!

I'll admit, it was bittersweet to enter his place. It's been three years since I've set foot in my Mom's shop, and the scent was unmistakable. I had time to wander around and reminisce before we took off on our adventure.

What adventure? Well, if you want flowers in December, what do you do? You go to a floral wholesalers warehouse, of course. Now I've been around little shops, but this place was amazing! With coolers the size of my house, and live greenery and flowers of every shape, size, color and texture, I was in sensory overload. The owner was gracious and gave us the run of the place, and I could have stayed all day-if it had been warmer, burrr!

We spent a couple of hours, and created a number of images to be used both now and later. The one selected for his ad was taken in "the big cooler" with shelves full of buckets of greenery for our background. to make him and the pink flowers stand out.

The Triad Wedding magazine will be out in January, and yours truly will have an ad in there as well. If you know anyone planning a wedding in the Triad area, let me know and I'll send them a copy of the magazine. And if they haven't found a photographer yet, I'd love to talk to them. ;-)