Walter Rowe and How to Photograph Water Lilies

Once in a while you come across a photograph that is not just an image. It is a work of art, because it is more than just the image. It makes you stop in your tracks and holds your attention in theWalter Rowe with his Nikon D200 same way as a painstakingly crafted painting. But this is just a picture of something caught at a moment in time by the press of a button, held by a recording instrument and mechanically reproduced. Yet despite that, here is a photograph that expresses more than the eye can see, because it is taken by a person with an eye to see and at a time when he or she realises the full expression of the subject can be caught. The equipment the photographer uses, and how it is set and set up are all important. But like the painter’s brush and palette these are just the tools of the trade and the techniques to attain the final vision.

There are just a few photographers who can do this. Many of them come from a fine art background. Only one or two seem to have been borne with a gift that enables them to express themselves and something about their subjects through the medium of the static image. One of them is Walter Rowe.

Walter Rowe photographs water lilies and rock bands. Think about that. What do they have in common? There are two things his water lily pictures do pack. They are the vibrancy of a song and the impact of a stadium performance. On top of that he can make water lilies look sexy!

To see what made such an artist tick, I asked him for an interview and I was really glad he accepted. And so here are the bones of that interview, with some of his tasty pictures just to make plant photographers everywhere green with envy:
Water Lily1Water Lily2PM: How old are you?

WR: I am 42 years old.

PM: Where do you live?

WR: I live in Columbia, Maryland, with my wife of 13 years. Maryland is the heart of the Mid-Atlantic region along the east coast of the USA. It is home to the Chesapeake Bay and surrounds Washington, DC, on three sides. Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia border it.

I did not always live here. I was born in Florida and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 18 months. I consider Nashville my first home. Tennessee is also home to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park in the eastern part of the state. I had relatives who lived near there so I spent a fair amount of time there in my early years. The town in which I went to college was also in a mountain region, which afforded me an even greater amount of time in the outdoors.

Water Lily3Water Lily4After graduating college in 1989, I moved to Maryland to pursue a career in the computer industry. I have lived in the Washington DC suburbs ever since.

PM: How long you have been photographing? When was the first time you held a camera? What was the camera?

WR: Like most professionals, photography has been an interest of mine since childhood. I used various hand-me-down cameras through college and into my 20's. Looking back now, I remember one profound experience in 10th grade high school (age 15). I was taking my first photography course. This was my first exposure to the science of photography. Our teacher tried to teach us the relationship between f-stops, shutter speeds, and film speed, and how they effect exposure and depth-of-field. I simply could not get my mind around it.

In this class, we also were to learn how to develop exposed film into negatives, make prints with an enlarger, and develop our prints using the various chemical and water baths. For this assignment, I used a hand-me-down Kodak Brownie Hawkeye and black & white film (old 620 roll film). After I took my pictures, I was ready to begin processing the film. The first step requires that you remove the exposed film from its spool, put it onto a developing reel, place the reel in a canister filled with chemicals, and seal it up. These steps had to be done in complete darkness. I simply could not get the exposed film off the film spool and onto the developing reel. My teacher asked if I wanted him to turn on the light. Without thinking I said yes. That would have ruined the film. He got a good laugh out of that.

Water Lily5Dragonfly on Lily flowerPM: Did you work with film? What film and camera did you use? When did you go digital and what was your first digital camera?

WR: In college, I got my first 35mm camera - a Minolta Freedom II. I used that for about 10 years, taking photos of friends and camping trips and pictures along hikes. In 1993, my wife and I were planning our honeymoon to Hawaii. I wanted to get really good photographs since I knew it would be a place of extreme beauty and I would not have frequent opportunities to return there. With the help of my mother-in-law to be, I purchased a Canon Rebel Xs SLR. This was my first SLR. I used that for about 8 years and read many instruction books on photography. In September of 2002, I purchased a Nikon F5 professional film camera. This was my first and last professional 35mm film camera body.

In the summer of 2003, I purchased a Canon PowerShot G5 digital camera for my wife. That was my first step into the world of digital capture, and it proved to me that digital camera technology had matured enough to produce the same quality images as film. It also showed me the amount of control digital capture afforded me. After using the Nikon F5 for only a year, I sold it and purchased a Nikon D100 digital SLR in September of 2003. I used the D100 until November of 2005 when Nikon released the Nikon D200. I am still using the Nikon D200 today.

PM: When did you go professional and what was the 'road to Damascus moment' that made you decide to do it?

WR: I chose to hang out my plaque in the fall of 2003 after purchasing my first digital camera. Up to that point, I had owned a professional film camera, and had read numerous instruction books on photography with the intent of someday becoming a professional photographer. Buying and processing rolls and rolls of film to experiment with reference to what I was reading was tremendously expensive, so my progress and improvement were slow. In addition, I still knew nothing about the business of photography.
Water Lily6Water Lily7
With my first digital camera, I was able to speed up the learning process enormously and I quickly improved. With digital capture, there is no expense of purchasing and processing film, no waiting for film to return from the photo lab, and no intermediary person or machine to alter the results. You have complete control of the process from initial capture to final output. After two months with the first digital camera I purchased for my wife, I sold my professional film SLR and purchased a professional digital SLR.

As I began to share the results of my efforts with family and friends via e-mail, I started getting requests to own prints of my work. I joined two nature photography community web sites, NaturePhotographers.net and NatureScapes.net, where I posted some of my work for critique. The feedback I received from the other members of these sites was invaluable and encouraging. The requests for prints and the encouragement of other nature photographers inspired me to pursue photography as a profession. So I purchased recommended books on the business of photography, read them cover to cover, talked to a tax accountant, and set myself up as a business in the fall of 2003.

PM: What was you first sale? OR What was your first commission? OR both.

Water Lily8Water Lily9WR: I sold my first prints as a professional photographer in 2003. I licensed my first image for publication in March of 2004. In April of 2004, I received my first commission to photograph an event. My photographs have been featured on nature and travel photography web sites, and I have received some recognition for my water lily photographs. I sell photographic prints for display, license my photographs for publication, and I accept assignments.

PM: When did you first start photographing lilies and why? How many do you have?

WR: I started photographing water lilies in 2005 when my computer industry job moved to a new location near a water gardening nursery. I started spending lunch hours there during the summer months when the blooms were at their peak. In the last two years, I have captured nearly 500 water lily photographs and numerous lotus flower photographs.

PM: What or who has been your main inspiration?

WR: My two favourite photographers are John Shaw and Galen Rowell. John Shaw's series of instruction books on nature photography and running a nature photography business should be staples on any photographer's bookshelf. His no-non-sense presentation makes the complex technical side of photography very easy to grasp, and his book on the business of nature photography is thorough and insightful.

Water Lily10Water Lily11Galen Rowell wrote many inspirational articles and books, and photographed the most spectacular adventure photographs I have ever seen. His writings make me ponder more than the simple objects before me. They inspire me to see, not just look. He incorporated the technical aspects of photography into his articles, but presented them in such a way as to make you think more deeply about the science behind what you are seeing on the printed page. His writings taught me about planning and preparing for a photograph.

PM: Is ‘photographing bands’ and gigs your bread and butter, or is that for pleasure?

WR: Music photography has become my primary interest as a professional photographer. I get a tremendous amount of pleasure capturing the energy and emotion of a live performance. There is something powerful about standing in the pit photographing an artist as an arena full of fans sing every word and the music artist pours their heart out back to them. That connection between artist and fan is simply incredible.

PM: What are your ambitions -other branches of photography to explore?

WR: In addition to photographing water lilies and music, I enjoy photographing other natural subjects, and I enjoy travel photography. I live in a region that is rich in US history. The founding of our country occurred in this region, and all of the major wars affecting the future of our country included battles that were fought here. The region is also rich in natural history from the mountains of West Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay. There is no shortage of photographic subject material.

Water Lily12Water Lily13PM: What is your kit now? What would be your favourite kit - wish list?

WR: My current camera kit is a Nikon D200 and Nikon lenses. I also own multiple Nikon flashes and a Nikon wireless flash controller. I rarely use the flashes for water lily photography. I try to photograph under shooting conditions that provide the light and shadow texture I desire without the use of artificial light. I feel it provides a more accurate depiction of what the viewer would see were they standing next to me as I took the photograph.

PM: What's the best kit for photographing lilies? Camera, lens, tripod.

WR: I prefer to photograph water lilies with a medium telephoto zoom lens attached to a digital SLR, all mounted on a sturdy tripod. My current setup for photographing water lilies is a Nikon D200, 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens, and a Gitzo 1325 tripod. At times I also incorporate a Nikon 1.4x tele-converter to give me that extra reach or a narrower field of view.

This setup gives me a lot of flexibility to orient myself as I want relative to the particular flower(s) I am capturing. It allows me to select the angle and background that most compliments the flower. In some cases I want a very tight field of view to eliminate distracting elements from the background. In other cases I want a wider field of view to incorporate some of the environment in which the flower is set.

Water Lily14Water Lily15PM: Do you do a lot of work on your shots in Photoshop?

WR: I strive to get the exposure right in-camera. That being said, I capture all my photographs in raw format. Raw format provides me the maximum opportunity to make minor corrections and adjustments during post processing, and preserves all of the information the camera can capture. I use Adobe Camera Raw to process my raw images, and Adobe Bridge to apply all of the requisite metadata to facilitate proper cataloguing and retrieval later. Typical adjustments in ACR are white balance, exposure, brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and luminance. I use Adobe Photoshop for fine tuning selected areas as necessary and producing final output files. I catalogue all of my photographs using iView Media Pro, which was bought by Microsoft in 2006 and is now called Microsoft Expression Media. I use the Mac platform for image processing and cataloguing.

PM: What camera settings, time of day, weather conditions do you prefer? Do you get in there with the lilies?

WR: I prefer to maintain just enough depth of field as to get the flower petals in focus and keep the surrounding foreground and background blurry. It makes the flower really stand out. To that end, I tend to work relatively close to the minimum focus distance of my lens - around 3 feet. With that working distance and the focal length lens I use, I tend to use f/11 to f/18 aperture. I use the slowest ISO setting my camera Water Lily17Water Lily18provides, ISO 100. I use aperture priority mode to control depth of field and let the camera automatically select the appropriate shutter speed. I take care to set the appropriate exposure compensation for the tone of the water lily I am photographing, and I use different metering modes based on the situation.

As for weather conditions, it varies. I like to shoot in overcast skies to control blown out highlights and contrast, but I have also photographed in the bright, midday sun. The light of midday sun reaches all the way down inside the bloom, illuminating the interior and making the petals in some varieties almost translucent.

PM: What is your favourite photo of all time? Is it yours or someone else’s?

I admire many photographs and many photographers. My favorite photograph of all time is Galen Rowell's "Rainbow Over the Potala Palace". Not only is this a terrific illustration of his vision and ability to see an image in the making, but the story behind Galen’s capturing it demonstrates all of the lessons in being prepared that Galen wrote about in his articles. I read about it in his book “Galen Rowell’s Vision”. You can find the photograph on his studio’s web site, www.MountainLight.com.

PM: Contact details and website details.

Walter Rowe - Rowe Images
Web: www.RoweImages.com
Email: walter@roweimages.com

PM: Do you accept commissions? sell prints? distribute world-wide?

WR: I offer custom prints up to 12x18 inches. Larger prints are available upon request. I also offer postcards, greeting cards, and calendars featuring my photographs. In addition to printed products, I also license my stock photographs for publication. Subjects found in my catalogue include water lilies and other flowers, other nature subjects, and wildlife, as well as travel and outdoor photographs from various locations in the USA and some from the UK. My collection of music photographs continues to grow and is available for editorial licensing. I also accept assignments from publications.