Photos of flowers, and orchids in Tuscany

It is spring in Tuscany, at the beginning of May. Arriving at Pisa airport the air smells different, drier, lighter, and brighter with the alluring wave of a flower scent, even amid the concrete bustle of airports everywhere. I travel light, or as light as possible when your camera bag is your carry-on and you can't quite leave the tripod behind. Not when the mission is a whistling orchid extravaganza, to try and photograph as many different kinds of orchids as we can find, in less than a week.

Setting off in a rental car, we leave Pisa and take the hills, a winding, winding, and convoluted road towards Siena. The air is cooler and the hint of flowers grows stronger until we are overwhelmed by the honeyed scent of the broom, pouring through the car windows. Every way you look there's a postcard scene, including the essential props of a Tuscany photo - cypress trees, a warm brick farmhouse, and a stone church, with gently curving green hills behind.

Is it possible to take a bad photo in Tuscany? Well yes, it is. If I give in to the temptation and break every alluring sight, I'm going to find that the bright midday light turns everything to dull monochrome, flattens the colors, and wastes all my film before I even start on the orchids. I'll have to take note of the best views and try to come back early in the morning or in the evening when everything magically becomes golden and lucid.

We know where we're headed—south of Siena, where a few friends have wandered through veritable meadows full of orchids. The challenge will be to find these places by car, along the Strada Bianca (dirt roads) that criss-cross the countryside. The other challenge is to reach our destination when every few meters we see a flower spike on the side of the road and have to shout at a stop to identify it. Fresh from England any orchid is a rarity, but after an hour we're already jaded And no longer stop for 'just another spotted orchid'.

The Next Day

we are up bright and early to our first spot on the lower slopes of Monte Amiata. There's an open glade surrounded by stunted and bingo oak trees – a lavish sprinkling of bee orchids, my favorite, with their furry, bumblebee-like lip. Now the advantage of morning light and sparkling dewdrops is offset by the fact that I will have to lie down in the wet grass to get a good angle. Remember to bring a waterproof next time. I should use a tripod, but first I look through the camera to choose the best specimens and the best setting. In some cases, I will have to cut the grass around the flower, either with nail scissors or by gently flattening it. A wide aperture will take care of the background but I don't want any blurring of the waving grass in the foreground. Sort out the tripod, get light reading, and a stand, stand, stand.

 

Photos of flowers, and orchids in Tuscany

These are pre-digital days, I'm using tranny and the color saturation needs to be spot on, so to be sure I'm going to do five half-stop hooks. I can't reshoot back home once I've processed everything and seen the results. It also means I have to be selective, I will only have six shots on a roll of film, so you have to choose the best flowers and the best angles.

Moving through the clearing, as the light gets stronger, I find a fly orchid, this time mimicking a bluebottle fly, not as pretty as the bee orchid but striking, then bracing myself for this shot, I almost walk on a fragrant orchid, with its delicate pink flowers. I have to be quick now before the light gets too harsh and contrasty. Three in the bag and it's off to a bar for a second breakfast of cappuccino and brioche.

The film is safe in a cooler - hot midday cars don't do much for that! The middle of the day is for evening session scouting, then lunch and a siesta. The light won't be good for about 5 hours, but we need to be in the right place by then to get the most out of it. So he again leads the secondary roads between Buonconvento and Casciano di Murlo.

Over the next few days, we'll cross off our list the Green-winged Orchid, Pyramidal Orchid, Lady Orchid, Monkey Orchid with its long tail, a not-so-easy-to-spot Man-Orchid with its yellow coloring. – green, but now we have our eye, the shape of the orchid jumps at us from all sides. Many of these orchids are also believed to be common in Britain, but I have never seen any.

Here in Italy, they are everywhere - must be something to do with farming methods, pesticides, and everything else. Here there are many small farmers, subsistence farming is dying out, but huge commercial farming enterprises have yet to take over. There are also many hilly forested and uncultivated slopes. Orchids line the roadsides, it's just to show!

At the end of the week he's back in Pisa, his hand in the rental car, just slightly dented from overly steep off-road experiences, and trying to persuade the security people to search the film bag rather than X-ray it, which could blur the film. They promise that their machine is so modern and infallible that you can watch the film safely, but I take no chances and finally they agree. So there's only one hurdle left to jump through, the lab back home, to process and see what I have – that heartbreaking moment before I opened the envelope, the huge sigh of relief when you see images on film, then examining each one carefully and remembering the smell of the Italian countryside