Shooting a Wet Plate Macro of a Cherry Blossom High on a Tree

After I recently saw cherry blossoms on my tree, I wanted to shoot one of them with my wet plate camera… while the blossom is still high on the tree.

When I was young, this tree was the location of my climbing adventures. This tree has seen better days – the weather during recent years has started to ruin some parts of it. But it is still beautiful in the springtime.

To make the blossom more steady, I clamped it onto a light stand:

Because the wind still moved it too much, I stopped the camera down to f/12 and placed a 1000W strobe pretty close to the blossom.

I could make my camera reach the tree with my maxed out Berlebach tripod (above 2 meters/6.5 feet). I initially thought I would an extra table underneath the tripod to reach the necessary height.

Because I didn’t give enough attention to securing my tripod, it nearly fell down two times. But after securing the legs and using a counterweight, the Berlebach tripod proved that it is built like a tank and it held my ultra large format camera in this extremely high position.

Here’s the final 21x27cm plate:

I created two plates — I’m keeping one, and the other is for sale through my store.

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