HomeCharities & FundraisersHuntington Symposium Features Botanical Photographer David Leaser

Huntington Symposium Features Botanical Photographer David Leaser

By Stacy Lee

Renowned botanical photographer David Leaser will share the secrets behind his innovative photography techniques this Saturday at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino.

“I use cutting-edge space age technology I developed with NASA and Nikon software to show close-ups of flowers impossible to see with the naked eye or traditional photography, like the dew on plants and their tiniest hairs,” he said.“ I also offer a polished aluminum edition of my work that gives an HD effect and shows even more detail.”

Leaser will join other famous botanical artists hosting workshops for the three day “Weird, Wild and Wonderful” symposium. The Huntington, American Society of Botanical Artists and the Botanical Artists Guild of Southern California have partnered to offer the symposium in conjunction with the “Weird, Wild and Wonderful” traveling exhibition that’s sponsored by the New York Botanical Garden.

Botanical artists have traditionally depicted conventionally beautiful flora,” said Robert Hori, gardens cultural curator and program director at The Huntington. “This exhibition is meant to showcase nature’s oddities—plants of charismatic quirkiness that have a bizarre beauty all their own.”

There are 11 of Leaser’s works permanently displayed at The Huntington. He has been featured on ABC News, and Fox News as well as in Architectural Digest, NikonWorld Magazine, Sunset Magazine and the New York Times. Leaser received the Grand Champion of Nature award and first place in the Moscow International Foto Awards 2014 for his “Art in Nature” series. He also was awarded a silver medal in the International Photography Awards. Leaser’s “Tiger’s Eye” work was the only photograph to be juried for the London Art Biennale.

Leaser was born in Hummelstown, Pa., a small town between Hershey and Harrisburg. He currently resides in San Diego. Leaser previously lived in Los Angeles for 26 years.

“I was working at IBM and going on business trips around the world,” Leaser said. “I’d take my camera and I started going to different attractions of the town I was in.”

He said he began taking photos of palm trees at the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens in Coral Gables, Fla. in 2001. Leaser said he didn’t think they turned out well. When he returned to Los Angeles, he met a National Geographic photographer at a photography store in Westwood.

“He gave me six pointers on how to make my photos National Geographic-quality,” Leaser said.

He said his photography skills were significantly improved after that chance encounter.

“I ended up getting four books published,” Leaser said.

His path into botanical photography actually involves The Huntington’s influence.

Leaser was attending the “Treasures from Olana” exhibit on landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church at The Huntington back in 2007 when he came up with the idea to retrace Church’s footsteps taking photos in South America.

“I bought a plane ticket and a got a guide,” Leaser said. “I went into the heart of the Amazon and the Andes.”

During his 2008 trip to South America, Leaser traveled where Church was inspired to create his works.

“I literally stayed at a Hacienda that I think he stayed at,” he said.

Leaser said he particularly enjoyed taking photographs in the lush Amazon rainforest. He said he found himself drawn to the floor of the rainforest with pink and green lizards matching the colors of the foliage.

“I started to focus on the tiny flowers on the rainforest floor,” Leaser said. “They had complete ecosystems, but were barely noticed by most tourists and even stepped on. A few days later I had an epiphany – maybe I should elevate these flowers to the point where they could be they could be enjoyed and appreciated.”

He said then researched ways to do this.

“I experimented for about a year with different processes because macrophotography didn’t give the depth of field and detail I was looking for,” Leaser said. “I eventually created my ‘dettagli’ process. I layer dozens and dozens of photos together with Nikon technology and NASA imaging software used on Mars.”

Leaser said this allowed him to achieve a great level of detail and depth that a painter can.

He travels often to take botanical photographs.

“I did a big collection from Hawaii and my next collection will probably be on California natives,” Leaser said.

Leaser will conduct “Close-up Botanical Photography: How to Create Astonishingly Detailed Images with Groundbreaking New Technique” on Saturday, July 25 from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. The cost is $60 per seminar. Leaser’s workshop will teach attendees the macrophotography process to show a subject’s most minute details and photo layering as well as other techniques and tips.

For more information on Leaser, visit www.davidleaser.com. Further information about the “Weird, Wild & Wonderful” exhibit or symposium can be found at www.huntington.org. To sign up for the symposium, go to www.asba-art.org/weird-wild-symposium.

 

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