Usually I just walk around and shoot things as I see them with no setup or special lighting. Today I tried something different. I took some scrap black velvet for a back drop, borrowed a twin flex neck light source from the PaleoLab, and lugged my tripod up to the botany department. They have this orchid that has been soaking in a ground glass jar of alcohol for around 75 years. I played around all through my lunch break and I hope you like the result.

This is Angraecum sesquipedale from Madagascar. Charles Darwin, studying the fertilization of orchids by insects, predicted that in Madagascar there must be a moth with a 25cm proboscis capable of reaching the nectar at the bottom of the tube and fertilizing this flower. Many years later such a moth, the night flying hawk-moth (Xanthopan morgani praedicts) was discovered.