A Study in Easter Lilies

I love everything about Easter Lilies--their sweet fragrance, white purity, triumphal trumpet shape and the deep christian symbolism associated with them.  They are also wonderful subjects for photography.

I used the natural light coming from our front window and messed around with settings and positions.

Typically this would not be considered a "good" photo because it is underexposed, but I love it.  It reminds me of something Caravaggio might have painted.  In my mind it represents Christ beginning to roll the stone away from the tomb in the darkness just before dawn.

I wasn't getting the focus I wanted using the auto focus on my camera so I switched to manual and took a few more shots from a few more angles.  I love the crisp focus on the pollen laden anthers.

 I love the soft lighting and dark background captured here.

Easter morn with lilies fair

Fills the church with perfumes rare,

As their clouds of incense rise,

Sweetest offerings to the skies.

Stately lilies pure and white

Flooding darkness with their light,

Bloom and sorrow drifts away,

On this holy hallow’d day.

Easter Lilies bending low

in the golden afterglow,

Bear a message from the sod

To the heavenly towers of God.

Louise Lewin Matthews