Iris Photography / Catalog of Iris Photos

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'Montmartre' was the first iris I really fell in love with. I had to know more and educate myself with something I knew nothing about. That flower started it all - fitting that it was bred by a "rock star" of the iris world named Keith Keppel. Keppel is known for his work with plicata iris (ones with dots or a stippling-like pattern) and luminatas, the category 'Montmartre' falls into. Luminatas are named so because they seem to be "lit" from within, with an inner glow radiating from the area surrounding the beards or the fuzzy little guys at the center of each downward sloping petal (actually a sepal) otherwise called the falls. This effect is much more powerful in person, it certainly captivated me. 

Fast forward. I now look forward to each spring with anticipation like I never had before to see my own hybridized flowers open for the very first time. The anticipation is not only to see new hybrids I've created, but also to photograph new varieties from other breeders that have yet to bloom for me. My photographic approach is that of isolating the flower. I carry equipment out to photograph in the garden. The shots with a solid background are created by me usually looking like a fool to my neighbors while doing a balancing act of holding a matte board behind the flower in one hand, while camera in front of the flower in the other. I like the solid background more often than not because of the aesthetic. I prefer to focus on the subject void of surroundings, as with mainly of my paintings, in particular the monumental toy series with plain white backgrounds. I find that by isolating the flower, using a white or dark gray background, will set certain colors off that are not seen because of a normal garden background. Also, I need to hide all my weeds from the world to see! 

*I do very little photoshop editing. I crop, make sure the color or light levels look like they did to my naked eye in the garden, add text (usually the cultivar's name, the hybridizer, year of introduction, and the type, such as TB, for Tall Bearded) and that is it. It's incredible the amount of effect a cloud suddenly blocking the sunlight has on altering the hues of an iris being photographed. Cloudy to partial/intermittent sun seems give me my favorite photographic moments. In full sun I feel like the color gets amped up too much with contrast and the photo becomes a less accurate depiction of the flower. Much of it is left to chance, but there's always a few days in the spring where everything seems to go just right in the garden and I get a few shots that are magic. Often, some of the better shots that I get are without bothering to looking through my viewfinder, since I'm in an awkward position or quickly trying to catalog a bunch of new blooms. The dwarf iris are the worst and are hell on my knees, but I have an affinity for their dainty beauty and grow lots of them along with the taller varieties. If nothing else, this serves to extend the bloom season in my yard as the reticulatas and then the dwarfs kick-off the bearded iris show in March and April. Typically, my front yard is ablaze with abundant color and reaches peak bloom mid to late May. I grow several varieties of the reticulata species iris which are even tinier than the bearded dwarf iris. One unusual season they have bloomed as early as late February but quickly met they're fate with the Ohio winter. The dwarfs are always a little more challenging because they can be destroyed by our late frosts and snowfalls, thwarting my hybridizing pollinations/efforts. 

Species other than bearded iris are also a treat to grow. To extend the season even more I grow a few Japanese iris. Iris Ensata or Japanese iris (JI) are usually around the height of Tall bearded and often taller. They tend to bloom during summer right after the Tall bearded are finishing up in June and bloom into July and August for me. There are also Reticulatas, as mentioned, Siberians, Louisiana, and many more. Signa (Species Iris Group of North America) has a good list of the myriad species of iris. Some can be difficult to grow in Ohio such as Pacific Coast iris. I tend to stick with the bearded iris - they are generally hardy and I often like to say they thrive on neglect, a bit of an exaggeration. 

Below are the iris I have photographed in my yard grouped by size/height class. A few charts for the standard iris classifications follows. The first two graphs show classification by height left to right and the next shows the types and corresponding bloom time in the year: