I was on hand to photograph the Titan Arum, or Corpse Flower blooming for the first time at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden in Belmont, NC. I have to admit I have an inside source; my neighbor, Mary Duke, posted information about the flower on her Facebook page.

The flower is the Amorphophallus titanium flower, commonly known as the Corpse flower,  blooms once every 8-10 years.  One of the largest at 6 feet tall, the flower emits a smell that people say reminds them of a dead animal or corpse.  The bloom lasts about 48 hours.  As for the smell, I did not smell anything putrid while I was there. But I did notice a slight odor. Other admirers told me that the smell comes and goes.

I used a Nikon D810 camera, 70-300mm lens, with 1/1200s at f/4/5, 70mm, ISO 2000.

The plant is a native of the island of Sumatra. It is housed in the Orchid Pavilion at the DSBGGardens.

In the following photograph I used a SB900 flash with my camera set-up and tripod along with a few basic post-adjustments like cropping and color enhancements in Lightroom. The background did tend to darken when I used the flash.

I plan to work on my flash technique so that I can improve the fill-flash on my photographs. I’ll keep you posted.

Hope you enjoy.