A FLOWER STUDY ...

The Emotional Impact of Flowers Study was published in the April 2005 issue of Evolutionary Psychology.
Home Ecology of Flowers Study
Harvard: Living with Flowers Strengthens Feelings of Compassion, and Decreases Anxiety and Worry

With people’s desire for tranquility and stress relief stronger than ever, fresh research takes an insightful look at flowers and the important role they may play in our daily lives. A behavioral research study conducted by Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, reveals that people feel more compassionate toward others, have less worry and anxiety, and feel less depressed when fresh cut flowers are present in the home.

“Other research has proven that flowers make people happy when they receive them,” Etcoff says. “What we didn’t know is that spending a few days with flowers in the home can affect a wide variety of feelings.

The Home Ecology of Flowers Study at Harvard uncovered three main findings:

*Flowers feed compassion.

Study participants who lived with fresh cut flowers for less than a week felt an increase in feelings of compassion and kindness for others.

*Flowers chase away anxieties, worries and the blues at home.

Overall, people in the study simply felt less negative after being around flowers at home for just a few days.

Participants most frequently placed flowers in their kitchens, dining rooms and living rooms, where they spend a lot of time at home. They reported wanting to see the blooms first thing in the morning.
*Living with flowers can provide a boost of energy, happiness and enthusiasm at work.

Having flowers at home can have a positive carry-over impact on our mood at work, too. The study found that people were more likely to feel happier and have more enthusiasm and energy at work when flowers were in their home living environments.
“As a psychologist, I'm particularly intrigued to find that people who live with flowers report fewer episodes of anxiety and depressed feelings,” Etcoff says. “Our results suggest that flowers have a positive impact on our well being.” AND AM I NOT LIVING PROOF OF THAT???????? LOL????
As a youngster, being born in Bruges, West Flanders, I would often just walk into one of the many musea and churches where you could admire all the great old Masters, I was a sponge, absorbed it, stored it, till now?
So, I adapted the lights and reflectors for the 'Flemish School of light' again, it so suits these.
It is full on the time of the DOUBLE TULIPS in the shop... at the moment, I feel they 'might' be my favourites! They are a bit capricious, Baroque, so varied in shapes, with small oddities, I have become fascinated by them, aahh, and the colours, from deep red, through textured orange to veined yellow to green, the leaves also perform.Oh my, and that sweet honey fragrance... HMMMM, Love them.
Here are a few 'studies'.
I wish you all a very good day and thanks for all your kind words, time, comments and likes. Very much appreciated.
Magda, (*_*)
 For more of my other work or if you want to PURCHASE (ONLY PLACE TO BUY MY IMAGES!), VIEW THE NEW PORTFOLIOS AND LATEST NEWS HERE on our website: www.indigo2photography.co.uk
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved

tulips,red,double,blooms,flowers,design, conceptual Art,studio,colour, black-background,square,lighting,Nikon D7000, magda indigo

ANOTHER EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW.

FROM THE HEART!!!

I was asked by Rosphoto for an exclusive interview. See the link at the bottom!
The choice of images I left up to them. They best know their 'audience'.
Often the questions are the same, but I like to think that my answers differ somewhat from my peers.
It is a Russian site and a lot got 'LOST IN TRANSLATION'???
That is why I am giving you both the questions AND my answers, as I gave them.


- When you started taking the pictures?
All in my family had cameras, I grew up with them, but 'serious': about 30 years ago. What a journey!

- What genre of photography is your favourite?
Over the years it has changed. I still love to photograph people, because I strongly believe that one of the main, yet too often forgotten ingredients in photography is: EMOTION! I am however best known for my flower-work. I maintain though, I AM NOT A FLOWER photographer... just "A" photographer.

- What equipment are you using?
To me, cameras are just wonderful tools! It is the photographer, behind the camera, who makes the photo!
I love my Hasselblads and my Nikons, but it really does not matter, give me any camera! GOOD lenses(glass) are important though, more important than the body.
Studio lights, often use a big softbox, continuous light and many reflectors.

- What do you like the lens Carl Zeiss? 
I love it for its clarity, sharpness, quality.

- Finish this sentence: "The Photo - it is.."
...at last seeing on screen or in print the image I saw in my creative mind, the thrill of having conquered the challenge.

- What advice can you give a novice photographers?
By learning the skill that 'IS' photography, not chancing it like I see too much of, people don't 'care' enough. It's been made, they think, 'TOO EASY'? You have to RESPECT your medium! Learn about composition, in other words: THE RULES so that you can break them!
It took me about 20 years to come to the result I WANTED!
All I can say is experiment, experiment, experiment... the camera, the lens, other people's EXIF data are irrelevant, because each subject, the material, circumstances, light source is different. Make it your own!
Learn from every mistake you make. Do you think I've stopped learning' I probably work harder at it than most, trying out different, new light settings and techniques constantly.
Never upload an image that is not 100%. Treat each upload site as you would an Art gallery, because that is what it is, you put up an exhibition! People come, visit and judge!
Accept that not everybody is going to like your work, just like you don't like all of theirs.'Your ideas' also aren't always understood, but when they are, you'll get a compliment that will touch you deeply. And last but most important: have fun, enjoy it!

- What character should be a photographer?
A determined creative, with a madness they love to call 'PASSION'?

- Your favourite flowers?
Impossible to answer!

- Your dream?
Most of my dreams have come true, because I wanted it enough? Have a sudden win, money to organise and pay for a MASSIVE exhibit for all the good photographers that I know and who's work is sadly not being seen or recognised!

- Tell me please, how do you manage to make such a beautiful, clear photos on a black background?
To light an object well you need to understand it.
I have tried all sorts of light sources, from flash to Northern daylight, to halogen, FL, and other continuous light sources. There is no magic formula. Each flower needs to be brought to life by individually lighting it. The size, distance, angle and quality of the light all play a role.

- What is your source of inspiration?
My inspiration is nature and people, and a love of life and beauty. I've often said, 'I don't talk to flowers, they talk to me.' I try to let nature's beauty speak to me and then show what I see to the world.

-The creativity of any photographers who is to you particularly important?
As a creative, I try NOT to be influenced by anybody, I want to keep it fresh and personal... meaning that it comes from my brain, not someone else's. However, I do admire the work of Ralph Gibson, Jane Bown, Shinzo Maeda and my husband Paul Indigo.


Thank you, any comments are always welcome! Magda, (*_*)


http://rosphoto.com/a_flowers_magda_indigo

SO, OUT OF A NEGATIVE COMES A POSITIVE!!!!

A bouquet of flowers, to thank all who wrote in yesterday, for your feed-back. I am not 'the Oracle of Delphi' lol. I only wrote my personal opinion on the matter, because of what had happened to me too many times. I can take a lot, well I HAVE taken a lot. but I do have my limits. And I feel I can say things because I have earned my stripes, put in the years, made the mistakes, and I am still learning EVERY DAY. I am ALWAYS humbled when an image of mine gets chosen, out of the millions, I NEVER want to get used to it! But it feeeeeeeeeeeels good!

I got one very interesting reply:
"Hi Magda

I spent a lot of time last night thinking about what you said and about how you felt about my glib response and the message hit home that it is important to take your work seriously. You sacrifice time, money and energy for something you love with the ultimate hope of creating something beautiful and memorable. I spent some time ths morning reading your blog and viewing your work as a professional photographer as again the words 'precision and passion ' jumped to mind."

I ALSO had time to think, and here goes, Paul and I gave workshops, so people 'payed' for our opinion, our input, our vast personal experience and knowledge... and they were happy and grateful, feeling enriched and encouraged. HHHHHHMMMMM, strange when something is FREE that it is NOT so appreciated? So, lovely people, if you want a proper critique... I'm afraid from now on... you will have to pay for it!!! HAHA, take care, M, (*_*)

http://www.indigo2photography.co.uk 
For more of my other work or if you want to PURCHASE (ONLY PLACE TO BUY MY IMAGES!), VIEW THE NEW PORTFOLIOS AND LATEST NEWS HERE on our website: www.indigo2photography.co.uk

IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved

OOOHH NO THEY DON'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ABOUT PROPER CRITIQUES.

On MANY photo upload sites there seems to be a movement of people who are stating: "I am tired of just getting comments like: great, awesome, excellent etc ..."
They say THEY WANT A PROPER CRIT???????? OOOHH NO THEY DON'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll give you the example! I resisted for a long time, but this time it seemed genuine. So I put the time in and wrote on one image, that was in a group. On the one, that the horizon was skew and that is a big NO-NO in photography and that the sky was full of dust bunnies (BTW both VERY easy to 'correct' in PS), the photographer of the photo agreed however, I got ticked off by another one who thought the photo was AWESOME....
First thing I saw in the second one was that the photo was uploaded skew, then the subject, it was softened to death, had lost ALL its beautiful detail. It looked plastified... I gently asked why? And wrote that it had lost ALL its beautiful detail. The reply: I KIND OF LIKE IT! That is a communication stopper, if ever there was one? 

Then you MUST ALWAYS upload what you 'LIKE', and not give a shit about what anyone is trying to help you with, also STOP whining then about how you want to learn (buy a book or go on a course) and about the comments isn't that what you want? Well, some 'not so good photogs' are now giving critiques... the blind leading the blind! Good luck!
If you are NOT prepared to put in the care and love an image deserves, as does the viewer, why bother at all?
I am not going to waste my precious time any more and for ALL out there: if you want enemies: just give them the truth, LOL!

Thanks, Magda, (*_*)

PS: Agencies and Art sellers DO NOT WANT images that aren't perfectly cared for!

THE 2012 CHRISTMAS STORY... THE ANGEL and it's BIG WINGS...

The wind was whistling around the house, dancing a rondo with dry fallen leaves.
I sat in my chair, warm and cosy, yes, once again, the Christmas cheer and sparkle filling our home and hearts. I closed my eyes and listened to the pretty music, the bells, the harps, music box...
Do you remember? Last year, three angels visited, I dried their wings and the little angels flew off happily with their soft wings, and all I had left with was three feathers?
For on angel it was a first Christmas, hadn't been an angel for long... still an apprentice really. But, good material, great potential... otherwise, so I was told... you do not get any wings at all!
Well, this time, I felt the gentlest caress on my cheeck, hih, it tickled, I brushed it away, but it was there again, it was the angel, I recognised it, how it had grown, smiled and said:
"Yes, you remember me, you where so kind to us, we had fun, he?
I wanted to come and tell you myself: I got my BIG wings!"
"How wonderful! That pleases me greatly! Well done my angel!
You must be thrilled? But, can I ask you, what did you do to earn them?"
The angel blushed a little, I said " Oh, maybe you can't tell me?"
"No, no, I can, only, it seems so minor, all I had to do was watch over you and your loved ones... and, I know that now and then I made a small mistake, like when you lost your camera-lens-hood in the dunes in Belgium, and, oohhh, do you remember, you almost tripped on the stairs in Holland when you visited your son and family, I was just able to grab you, aah and I..."
I put out my hand and touched the silk sleeve: "Please, my dear, you deserve your Big wings! You kept us all safe, that IS the most important, I am so grateful to you! Come sit closer, and please can I take a portrait of you? The family are arriving on Christmas day, and I would love to tell them and show them?"
The angel smiled again: "Of course!"
I ran upstairs for my camera, came back, a quick make-shift studio, black-background up, the angel was very patient, yes, really 'had the patience of an angel', haha.
I took the photo.
The angel came closer and whispered: "I am sorry, I have to go now, with the new wings come more responsabilities. Just wanted you to see them!"
I felt a gentle kiss on my forehead, again the tickle on my cheek from the wings.
Silence.
I was alone again.
I picked up my camera, so curious to see...
And THIS is what I had captured... THE BIG WINGS...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfTWHbtv_-Y   ANGELS
TO LISTEN TO.
I wish you all things good and wonderful, Magda, (*_*)

 For more of my other work or if you want to PURCHASE (ONLY PLACE TO BUY OUR IMAGES!), VIEW THE NEW PORTFOLIOS AND LATEST NEWS HERE on our website: www.indigo2photography.co.uk
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved

CREATIVITY IS A VERY DELICATE FLOWER... represented here by A PEONY.

They write (amongst many other things): It is the ability to "think outside the box" ! I ask: WHAT BOX???? LOL.

"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:
A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.
To him... a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god,
and failure is death."
Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating."
— Pearl S. Buck writer of the book " PEONY"


I must admit that as a 'creative',
1, being a night-person, my 'best' ideas mostly come after midnight!
2, it is an urge, not a choice... and
3.... as soon as you have 'problems', however small, with client, family, health... the first thing to GO is: my creativity! So please, tee hee, do not upset me, he?

Characteristics of the creative personality:
Creative individuals have a great deal of energy, but they are also often quiet and at rest.
Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naive at the same time.
Creative individuals have a combination of playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
Creative individuals alternate between imagination and fantasy at one end, and rooted sense of reality at the other.
Creative people seem to harbor opposite tendencies on the continuum between extroversion and introversion.
Creative individuals are also remarkable humble and proud at the same time.
Creative individuals to a certain extent escape rigid gender role stereotyping and have a tendency toward androgyny.
Generally, creative people are thought to be rebellious and independent.
Most creative persons are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.
The openness and sensitivity of creative individuals often exposes them to suffering pain yet also a great deal of enjoyment.

Found HERE:  California State University, Northridge, From Creativity - Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
I recognize myself COMPLETELY in this!

Giving my flowers SOUL?  My Soul Flowers on youtube and   Studio Flowers 2011
Why not take a few minutes, click on the links, sit back and relax, enjoy the beauty, you'll feel replenished?
THANX for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated.
Have a wonderful day, filled with love and beauty, M, (*_*)

For more of my other work or if you want to PURCHASE, visit here: www.indigo2photography.co.uk
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved

SECRET CODE... and the (new/old) RULES of PHOTOGRAPHY?

SECRET CODE...

The title came simultaneously as I saw it, just an unpretentious image of something that made me laugh ... 

A bit of humour? Somebody called it 'chaotic minimalism'... is there such a thing? 

(for larger size click on the image!)
One of the first images I took, on the first morning in Fuerteventura, outside the hotel, that's how it came out of the camera and I love it, hope you do too.
Photography has a 'CODE', it is fluid, like all good things, stagnating is not good, new gadgets mean new styles, new media means new rules or should I say 'adapted'?
Here is something I think EVERY photographer enthusiast or pro, semi-pro, whatever... SHOULD read!!! ENJOY!!!
The few rules of composition are acceptable only as reference points, which may have many valid exceptions. Sometimes breaking the rules is a means to obtain a good photo. Of course, this is true if and only if the photographer is aware of what he’s doing.
So, here is how Feininger, in his book, dismantles many academic rules:
1. The golden section (and, I add, the rule of thirds, ie. to place the subject at 1/3 from one edge of the photo), while ensuring peace and harmony, can be boring.
2. The “S”-shape curve is one of the most repeated patterns in photography
3. The theory of “guidelines”, which lead the viewer’s eye to the main subject, is false, as demonstrated by scientific studies. The eye quickly detects the most interesting part of the picture. And then, not necessarily the main subject of the photographer coincides with the center of attention of the observer.
4. Threads of compositions based on triangles, diagonals and other refined geometric figures exists only in the minds of photographers who have invented them. The academic observer who is free from preconceptions, does not care about such rules.
5. The horizon line should never split the photo in two equal parts, to avoid a monotone (boring) images. But if the photographer wanted to express the sensations of boredom?
6. Movement and action should always proceed from left to right, according to the normal sense of the reading. False: Jews and Arabs read from the right to the left!
7. The space in front of the subject should be greater than the space behind him. It is not always true: for example, a running person, placed towards the edge of the picture in the direction of its motion, gives an impression of arrival, and this is important when you are photographing sporting events (such as running races in athletics).
8. In the portrait, when the subject looks at the camera, you should leave more space in the direction of his eyes. False. Violating this rule can give a state of tension to the photo.
9. The bright parts of a photo catch the eye more than dark. False, a dark form with well-defined boundaries, in a large and clear area, immediately attracts the eye.
10. Repetition and spatial periodicity of similar elements can produce interesting patterns. False. There is no reason why a grid or a series of many identical and uninteresting objects is better than one object worthy of interest.
On the other hand, as Feininger said in its book, there are at least three rules in which he has never found an exception:
1. The small white areas of the subject or of the background situated near the edges of the photo gives the impression of a print “gnawed by rats”. These areas should be burned (blackened) in the darkroom (or cropped)
2. Curves and round forms should never touch the edges of the photo, but should be cut with courage, leaving out of the picture a not negligible part of the curve
3. The straight lines should not end in a corner of the photo, but should terminate at a certain distance from it.
Hope your day is filled with smiles and thanx,M, (*_*)
For more of my other work or if you want to purchase, visit here: www.indigo2photography.co.uk
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved