These photos result from a two-day experiment in which I used a wide-angle lens for the first time, a Sigma .14-24 wide lens on my Leica SL2-S mirrorless camera so that I could explore my idea of Community Flower-Photography.

Charles Darwin gave me this idea from something he wrote long before wide-angle photography.

He said plants always talked to one another, an idea botanists agree is true. They don’t do it the way we do.

I want to see if I can capture that feeling in my photos. I felt I was close yesterday, and here are some of the pictures I took. This morning, I experimented with a 55 mm portrait lens. I’ll post a few photos with that lens shortly.

The ones here will all be taken with the wide-angle Sigma.

My favorite photos are soft; the flowers are smooth, not literal. Leica Glass is great for getting soft images.

The wide angle sucks in color all around it. I’m surprised by how close I can get.

Depth of field is essential in my photos; they shroud the flower in color but take nothing away from it.

The camera takes in the environment around the subject without taking anything away from it. That is what I mean by community flower photography. In their own way, flowers take care of one another.