Daffodils

As I have so often said, "my idea of the great outdoors is an outdoor cafe".  I will never be the photographer who crawls through a snake infested swamp to capture an image of a rare orchid, or who hires a Sherpa guide to lead her to a single wildflower clinging to a precipice.  I prefer the garden variety of flowers - roses, peonies, irises, and lilacs in the Gardens of Giverny, Versailles, Grasse, or for the time being, the park next door - the wilderness tamed out of them.        

Some things cannot be tamed.  As a "budding" floral photographer, the daffodil is my own floral version of Shakespeare's Shrew, which I cannot tame.  It is for me, the most challenging flower to photograph in its natural environment.  In Canada, daffodils bloom during the windy months of early Spring.  They dance with even the slightest breeze - their heads nodding like Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in their Wayne's World performance of Bohemian Rhapsody.

If there's a personal style to my photography, it is to get up close to a flower.  I work with natural light.  I don't use a tripod.  I just relax, and breath deeply, hold the camera steady, frame the shot, focus, and...the wind blows the daffodils out of the frame.  Again, deep breath, frame the shot, and click...another blurry shot of a daffodil moving across the frame.  Deep breath, and...the Prima Donna daffodil is photo bombed by a chorus line of daffodils.  The gloves are off - really off - because I can't click the camera while wearing my thick Winter gloves.  So, I'm freezing while waiting for the wind to die down.  Time stands still, daffodils don't.

As I write this, there's not a bloomin' daffodil to be found East of the Rocky Mountains.  Not in the great outdoors.  You have to buy them, and photograph them indoors.  Luckily, April is Daffodil Month for the Canadian Cancer Society, and they bring them in by the truckload.

The latest figures show that in 2013, the Canadian Cancer society's Daffodil Campaign raised more than 19-million dollars to help cancer patients living with cancer, and to fund further research into prevention, and treatment.

The Canadian Cancer Society says, "to some, the daffodil is just a flower.  For us, it is a symbol of strength and courage.  It says we will not give up.  It says we will fight against cancer and we will win."  The dance-in-a-thunderstorm daffodil is the symbol of an unbreakable spirit.  The daffodil may just tame cancer!

In loving memory of my husband, Brande Gentray, who died of liver cancer in October 2014.  He had great strength and courage.  He had an unbreakable spirit.

The Canadian Cancer Society www.cancer.ca

Photo credits:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated