Yesterday evening, 4th January, Polina Plotnikova opened the 2022 season at NDPS with a presentation of her work featuring creative flower portraiture and still life photographed in both a studio and her home. She studied fine art in a Moscow university and her photography was then only a hobby, but this grew into a profession and obsession.

Polina gave us several examples of old masters who had inspired her, European artists of the 17th to the 19th Century, but her inspiration extended to include the Impressionists; Van Gogh; Claude Monet and Bobbie Burgers.

She said that her approach to studio flower photography was to treat the exercise as a portrait photograph. Her pictures were not flower arrangements but individual flowers or very small groups of blooms. She explained that many of her photographs were focus stacked and taken using a variety of lenses including those from Lensbaby.

Her lighting diagram was two lights, a camera on a tripod plus a tethered laptop. She said that she preferred to spend time with her camera rather than Photoshop, always capturing exactly what she saw on the back of the camera without the need for lengthy work on the computer after the shoot.

The second part of her presentation was called 'Still Life'. Again, she explained that in the studio she, the photographer, was in control of everything so that no one could be blamed for mistakes, this compares with outside shoots where the light varies, there can be rain and there can be people to walk into the shot.

Polina showed herself to be very exact in her compositions citing an example of a two year wait to find a particular prop! Plus, the invaluable piece of advice for anyone who wants to try this type of photography - 'don't get rid of your old ironing board'!

Thank you Polina for an absorbing presentation and a collection of outstanding photographs as well as a brilliant start to the New Year.

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