National Geographic. The magazine with the yellow border that shaped up the way I see the world from the eye of photography.
Shooting for NG was quite a challenge. As you know, I am not a macro expert. But getting to know rare orchids that were worth hundreds of millions of rupiah was intriguing (can you bloody believe it? It made me believe being a photographer was not the best job in the world). So I decided to take the job.
I brought a plain white paper as background, some of my flash heads, and shot it outdoor. The main trick is to combine the right exposure of the flash with the sun. I measured often, as the sun keeps moving, and the amount of its light keep changing.
I knew (almost) zero about orchids. All I knew was my mom was a big fan of them, and she used to had plenty. Exploring the anatomies was also very interesting. I luckily have Titik Kartitiani, an orchid specialist, accompanied me along the way. Without her, I would have been so dead.
Dendrobium Anosmum
Dendrobium Anosmum is well spreaded from India to The Philippines, from Indonesia to Papua.
Paphiopedilium Victoria-Regina
Paphiopedilium Victoria-Regina, such a cool name isn’t? Three flowers altogether!
Dendrobium Lasianthera
They also called it iron orchid. It generates blue color if hybridised with other orchid.
Paphiopedilum Gigantifolium
This is the giant orchid. Ayub S. Parnata found it in 97, but failed to put his name on his discovery.