I had been looking to buy one of this orchids for a while but just couldn't bring myself to spending $20-$40 on a plant that in all likelihood I will kill. A few months back a local grocery store had one for $2.00. It was badly in need of some TLC but I thought I'd take it anyway!

I placed it in my front window, called a friend who has spent a lot of time growing these and though she told me they do not really like direct light, suggested that I leave it where it was as it did bloom after I got it.

I then burned the leaves of the plant in the front sunlit window.

I've moved it to another location where it receives filtered light, Leanne fed it with some fertilizer we had around and even though the leave are very badly damaged, it threw another spike that you now see here.

I shot this with direct light from my Canon strobe specifically to capture the hard shadow on the wall. This is unlike most of the other flowers (like this and this) I have shot at home where I try to use large, diffuse light.

I used this technique once in the past to photograph a rose.