Dancing Lesson

This is the White Helleborine, a relatively common sight in beech woods here in the South of England, but one until Tuesday I had never seen. Growing on chalky woodland soil they prefer the shade of the fresh spring leaf cover, flowering every two to three years.

In the stillness of morning grey, I became spellbound by their graceful simplicity. After sitting on the wet leaves leaning back on a beech, it suddenly dawned on me that this wonderful flower is the personification of what an orchid should be; beauty elegance and poise, like a slender dancer holding her final move to the curtain, almost a woodland ballet frozen in time. The more I looked around the less I did, so I just sat and smiled, and it felt good.

Photography swings you from technician to artist like breaking waves. It is difficult to feel overwhelmed whilst considering composition, focus emotional response. It was almost a lesson to me to simply SLOW DOWN and get in tune with what I am doing before I start; to study and think, to look for character in the subject before taking the camera out of the bag. With coastal sunsets this is often never possible so it was refreshing to sit still in a woodland and breathe steady beneath the beech canopy on the stage of the White Helleborine.

This is no ground breaking photograph, it doesnt show any alternative techniques or skill, so just enjoy the plant for what it is.

EOS 5D 300mm +2xII f11 for 1sec ISO 400