A year or so ago I was going to post work by Leslie Gleim, but it didn’t happen, I stopped doing the posts. Today I am happy to show you Leslie’s work for my Influencing Me post today.
Influencing Me – Leslie Gleim
This is another artist who is into macro photography and flowers. It seems to be the time for me to be looking at all these works and see what I can learn from them.
Today’s artist is another of those that I think does incredible macro images and I love seeing them.
My first introduction to her work was on Instagram. Which is a great platform to discover people.
Black and White Macro
It is unusual to find someone who seems to specialise in black and white macro photos. Not that people don’t do it, but you don’t often find someone who only seems to do monochrome.
Leslie gives you a look at the beauty of these beautiful plants and flowers without the colour to distract you. When that is removed you have to concentrate on the structure and textures. It is an interesting way to look at them. I love it. I suppose in many ways you have to be more select with what you are doing. There has to be something other than colour to make them attractive.
Composition
In some ways her work reminds of the flowers that Robert Mapplethorpe used to photograph. Composition is always important, but I think when you are doing this sort of photography it is more so. Without the distraction of colour, and it can be that, you have to be spot on with what you are attempting to do. You can play around with it a lot more too.
Leslie has really good composition skills and I’m always amazed at the images when they pop up in my Instagram feed.
Lighting
The lighting is spectacular too. It is not something that I give enough attention too, I think. I tend to photograph flowers in the garden and I have to take what lighting is available.
It isn’t known if Leslie does the same, or she sets the flowers up so she can control the lighting and composition. However, the lighting is fantastic and gives the flowers a reverence that I love. It is like they are looking heavenwards if you believe in that sort of thing. It is like they deserve our respect in a way.
Leslie just filled me in.
Just an FYI all my macro are taken out in nature, no artificial lighting no setting up just my careful attention in finding the composition that I want to capture. Not easy as often I have to dance around the wind 🙂 I have one botanical garden that I go to often, and doing that it has pushed me to look deeper!
Gallery
I went through her images from her Facebook page to find a selection of images for you. You can find more of work on her Instagram page. There is also a link to her website there as well.
Wow. I have done a pretty good amount of macro photography and am blown away by these shots–the composition and lighting really add drama and a sense of mystery. So often I spend so much of my time with macro shots worrying about getting the image in focus that it is tough to think about other creative considerations.
That is great Mike, I love your reaction to her work. Oh yes, getting the image in focus is difficult. I’ve been wondering if it is time to start thinking about using a tripod.
These are wonderful. I really enjoy my macro work, it’s creates a very different picture of the world. Monochrome often enhances the “drama” of the image.
I really enjoy mine as well. I agree. I have done some monochrome, but I might need to make more of an effort to do more.
Her work is amazing.
Yes, I think so too Cornelia.
Beautiful!
That is great Mamma, glad you like her work.
Thank you Leanne! Now I know why you found Leslie’s work so interesting. The black and white macro images are fascinating.
You’re welcome Tim, glad to hear you find her work fascinating.
🙂