Saturday 1 August 2015

Freaky Flowers: Echinopsis Cacti in Bloom



A montage of a dozen types of “Echinopsis cactus” flowers blooming and showing off their incredible colors. Echinopsis cactus flowers bloom overnight and last for only a day. In reality, the most of flowers are at their peak beauty for an hour or two. That's what turned me from a cactus fanatic into a cactus photographer and the longing to try to protect some aspect of their freaky attractiveness. Prior to becoming an Echinopsis enthusiast a few years back, I had never owned a DSLR or image-video editing software. In the evening when it looks like a plant's flowers are about to bloom, I bring it indoors to image and most of the clips in this montage show just about 8 hours of change as the flowers open and bloom. A little more than halfway through the montage, there are a series of three clips showing different views of a 24-hour period in the life of a yellow-flowered 'Daydream' plant. Six flowers that opened the night before I started filming wilt to nothingness and another 4 flowers grow spectacularly and then open. This series of “Daydream” clips is followed by another three showing other types of flowers wilting. These extra wilting clips are also taken over a daylong period.
Therefore, the question the most often about of cactus flower still images and time lapses is whether I have "Photo-shopped" them, that is, have I used editing software to juice things up and create the flowers' intense colors. He further said, I do, of course, use Photoshop and Light room and other editing software.  Moreover, rather than using these tools to overstate reality, I actually use them to reduce the intensity of the colors my camera captures. I have reduced the color saturation in every time-lapse clip in this video by a minimum of 10% and some 'Cabaret' and 'Antimatter' by 30% or more in order to have something that wasn't just completely blown out. I hope you enjoy "Freaky Flowers" and visit echinopsisfreak.com where you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about these cacti and also be able to reach me via a contact form should you wish.

Freaky Flowers: Echinopsis Cacti in Bloom from EchinopsisFreak on Vimeo.