A Floral Image | A Pink Quill

Behind the Shot

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The violet flower of this Tillandsia ‘Anita’ is in full bloom.

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This one has been on the back burner since April. I was fascinated by this plant when I came across it in Johnstown Garden Centre in Nass, Kildare. According to its wiki article this Tillandsia ‘Anita’ is part of the Tillandsia cyanea or Pink Quill species of flowering plant in the bromeliad family. ‘Anita’ represents the cultivator. The plant is native to Ecuador and here it is sitting in a Garden Centre halfway across the world.

For this image I wanted to ensure I captured the plant with plenty of it’s own green curved leaves surrounding it but ensure the ‘Quill’ was given promence. I set the camera up on a tripod and used live-view to ensure I had the violet flower in sharp focus. As you can see it was taken with a fairly slow shutter speed at 1/8th as it was indoors with poor lighting. However there was no movement and with the camera on a tripod I had nothing to worry about. After a couple of test shots I wasn’t happy that I was lifting the ‘Quill’ out from the foliage enough so I set up my flash at a very low output and placed it off camera to the right. This did the trick and help bring the pink and violet of the plant to the fore.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
Exposure: 1/8
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 100mm
ISO Speed: 100

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