Dear Friend,

I received your photographs and can feel the sincerity with which you are approaching this work for the Mother. Your aspiration is exemplary. Another flower book is now in the press. It is a updated and expanded version of the first book, Flowers and Their Messages, and the cover is in color, but again, it is without color photos inside. This is why the Field Guide will be so valuable to those aspiring to learn the significance of flowers.

Let me then begin with some general comments on aspects of flower photography that I have learned from more than fifty years of photography and macro photography, years of working with film cameras, studying subjects such as composition, light, color, sharpness, etc. and taking courses in New York City. Now, in the digital age, it is much easier to achieve excellent results because we no longer depend on film developing (which varied from company to company), type of films (some with too much blue, others whose color faded quickly, others that were ‘warm’ and others ‘cool’. Now one can see in an instant whether a photograph is acceptable or needs to be retaken. There is also the factor of cost. When we had only 24 or 36 exposure rolls in 35mm, one had to be extremely careful and take considerable time for each photo. This is still a good procedure to follow, otherwise one is simply taking ‘snapshots’.

I will have my camera with me when I arrive in the U.S., so we must, as you suggest, go around to photograph flowers in various gardens, for to visit gardens and botanical gardens is a special blessing where we can see man's collaboration with Nature and the beauty and harmony that can be achieved not by dominating her and imposing our will on her but by working with her towards a greater and greater perfection.

Here are some of the most important factors that challenge us in flower photography. There are other factors such as graininess, which is now termed 'noise' in digital photography, but I will concentrate primarily on these four in this letter.

1. Wind

2. Disturbing background

3. Light - too much or too little

4. Sharpness from edge to edge

Let me go into each one a bit more. When we are working close-up even a little wind can render the photograph out of focus. To stop wind (as well as our own shaking, even the steadiest of us needs to shoot at 125, occasionally, at 60. I don't know what kind of camera you have but we can look further into all these things when we meet. It is always best to photograph on a windless or near windless day.

For me the most challenging aspect of flower photography is the background. We may have taken a beautiful photo of a flower and, without knowing it, also included telephone wires, a garbage can, or a background of leaves where there is too much sunlight and everything turned pea green, the most unpleasant color for most photographs. I will use as an example your purple petunia with the white edge. You will see below how the background color takes away from the beauty of the photo.

Light is our great helper and our great challenge. Too little light and we have to open the lens wide which means we cannot get the sharpness we want. That is why we often use a tripod because we can then shoot as slower speeds than hand held would allow. Too much light and there is the effect of burning or too much brightness in the background. I have found that my best photographs are taken before eleven in the morning, usually before 10:30 in temperate climates and often even earlier in the tropics, as the light and color saturation are the best. However, this is not a hard and fast rule as sometimes one can get good photos later in the day (rarely in the hottest hours of the day) and in late afternoon.

Sharpness throughout the photo is very important and this requires closing down the lens (higher F stop number) as much as possible to get edge to edge sharpness.

The newer cameras have anti-shake mechanisms, much higher pixel count, etc. but the key component is still the quality of the lens. Nikon lenses are excellent though the cameras are costly. Zeiss lenses are also excellent and I believe are a component of some Panasonic models. I am not familiar with Canon but their cameras rank high in almost all reviews. There are also the new mirror-less cameras which I still have to study. They are much lighter than the professional and semi-professional Nikon and Canon models and may be an excellent entry level camera.

Since you have expressed a deep interest in studying photography and flower photography in particular, perhaps we could go to a camera store in New York and can see what is possible in today’s rapidly advancing digital age that astounds us as does the computer field with the rapidity of its improvements. You may already have a good camera though so please send me the details on the one with which you have taken these photos.

I will begin with your first flower and continue through until we have had the opportunity to review almost all of them.

The first photo of Cleome, Soaring of Aspiration is basically the same photo that I cropped and sent you from your original photo, eliminating the background. It is very good. However, I also mentioned that I would have liked your original photo better if the background were not disturbing. Why? I like thecompositionbetter with the cleome on the right , set off by some grass, sky, etc. to the left shows us more beautifully the plant in its setting. If all of our photographs are extreme close-ups it would get rather boring after awhile. So let me suggest that you shoot the cleome again from different angles, eliminating the background as much as possible. The close-up is excellent, no doubt and can be used for the Field Guide but I would also like to see how flowers are borne on a plant, showing some of the plant’s structure, its leaves, size, etc. These aspects can be

included in the book as insets so people will know, 'Ah, this flower is from a tree' , a shrub, a vine, etc.

The two photographs of the pink petunias with the red veins shown below are OK but the first one is better because less of the petal is cut off. One of my faults in the past has been to try and get so close that I cut off a part of the flower. Now you will know what it took me years to learn.

Mother gave the 'General Significance' 'Enthusiasm' to all single petunias, , and 'Joyous Enthusiasm' for all double petunias,. Totally, excluding the 'General Significance' which applies to all colors of single and double petunias not shown to Mother, She gave significances to seven single forms and seven double forms according to their specific color. The photograph you have taken is a form of 'Psychic Enthusiasm'.

The hibiscus you have shown above is most likely a hybrid of Hibiscus syriacus, a hardy hibiscus with the specific epithet 'syriacus' telling us that it is indigenous to Syria. It is commonly called the 'Rose-of-Sharon. Mother named two flowers of this species, 'Power in the Higher Vital', a medium-sized deep lavender flower that fades towards blue and has a magenta center with white anthers and is a popular variety in gardens. The other one isWill One with the Divine Will'and is a double white flower. When you photograph this species it would be very useful to include the leaves because they are quite different from other hibiscus.

The single lavender petunia is 'Enthusiasm in the Higher Vital'and is distinguished by the deeper veins of relatively the same color. It is a good photo with a harmonious background although, again, one would like to see a few leaves which are quite distinct in petunias. Of course there are intangibles such as the feel of the leaf and its 'bruised' fragrance when rubbed that cannot be captured with a camera!

The next two photos of Lantana, with the common name, 'Shrub verbena' are Supramental Influence in the Cells'. Again we are not able in a photograph to inhale the pungent scent of the leaves but we can capture the feeling of the 'cells' with sharp focus.

Your first photograph has mixed the leaves of another plant, throwing the seeker of significance off track! The flower is also out-of-focus. The second photo is far better because it not only shows the leaves but the buds as well, giving us another identifying characteristic. The composition is not at all bad but of course, it takes time to learn composition and one must be patient and study painting, architecture, and the works of the great photographers. One of the most important Japanese ideals is to divide a picture or an aspect of a garden or the shaping of a tree, etc, into thirds. Look at trees. There are two definitive shapes, a standard (one trunk) and a multiple (a number of trunks). The multiples are most beautiful when they have three, five, or seven trunks arising from the ground. Two and four are awkward combinations. This is very useful in landscape photography but doesn't always have the same application to close-up photographs of flowers. Even the rule that the subject should not be in the exact center of the photo can be, as can all rules, an exception for an experienced photographer.

The photograph of the white Crape myrtle is fair as it shows clearly the bouquet but very often too much sun takes the white out of focus and one sees that effect this in the photo. Look towards the top left of the flower head and you will see that the individual flowers are wiped out by too much light. If you photograph earlier in the day you have a better change of getting a sharper photo – and sharpness is critical.

The next two photos fail because of the busy, disturbing background, but more than that. In the first, the flower is out of focus. Now divide both photographs into approximately twelfths and you will see that the flower, your subject, hardly occupies 1/12^th of the area.

Mother did not name the Hosta or the thistle.

The hibiscus group is very challenging as regards identifying some of the flowers Mother named, especially the varieties from the Matrimandir Gardens Nursery, the Hawaiian hybrids, because many are no longer with us, having either died or been hybridized with other hibiscus so the original strain is lost. We do have some paintings but they too are often difficult to match exactly with the original flowers.

The pink double seems almost to fit fairly closely to the flower Mother named "Consciousness One with the Divine Consciousness'although that flower which grows well in Auroville, is larger and fuller and even more beautiful, so it is difficult to say.

The semi-double orange flower has not been named. There is one orange flower, Power of the Supramental Consciousness, that is double but the description we have given is: “Yellow, golden or orange with a red or deeper orange centre so the flower you photographed does not quite match our description.

The semi-double white again appears to me to be Hibiscus syriacus but identification would have been easier if the leaves were shown. If it did not have the red centre it would be ‘Will One with the Divine Will’ but it is very close in feeling to the significance Mother has given and could possibly be that. These small variations will be for others to decide who have a direct inner perception and, as Mother has written, in answer to the following question:

“Sweet Mother, how do you give a significance to a flower?”

Mother: “By entering into contact with it and giving a more or less precise meaning to what I feel…by entering into contact with the nature of the flower, its inner truth, then one knows what it represents.”

This lovely garden variety of phlox has not as yet been named by Mother. The photo is fair but the force of the flower is a bit lost due to the center being filled with green and one dead flower. It appears to me that the cluster of flowers on the upper right or possibly on the lower left would have been a better area on which to focus.

This is one of the newer Hydrangea hybrids. Mother has given the significance ‘Collective Harmony’ to the hydrangeas and she has written: “Collective harmony is the work undertaken by the Divine Consciousness; it alone has the power to realize it.”

The photograph is quite good with the exception that the top of the flower head is cut off. It is quite easy to photograph flowers with a flash late in the day or very early morning but too many black backgrounds become heavy. Once in a while it is acceptable and in this case we are able to see clearly a variety with small petals with the color being exactly as I know it. If you could retake it and capture the entire flower, perhaps with a leaf or two, that would be excellent.

The petunia pictured above is a bi-coloured single flower. Mother has named it ‘Enthusiasm in action’. The photograph presents two major flaws and I can tell you truthfully that I have taken dozens of photos with the same result! First, and most glaring is the pea soup background which is very unappealing. It is close to a chartreuse, disturbing and competing with, not enhancing the beauty of the bloom.Second is that the flower is old and has numerous white spots in it. I do not have anything against the software programs that can correct spots by retouching and perhaps deepen the background so it becomes acceptable. My objection is when people put a bird’s head on a cat thereby making a grotesquerie of two beautiful things.

The cluster of petunias which is described in the flower book as deep pink to mauve, gives us sufficient latitude to say this is ‘Vital Enthusiasm’. I like the photo. It is simple, clean and even though one might criticize some minor aspects, it is on the whole very clear, cheerful and a good representation of the flower.

There are many forms of geranium and for me, they all symbolize Mother’s name, ‘Spiritual Happiness’. Actually, geranium is the common name. The botanical name is Pelargonium. There is a genus Geranium but it grows in cooler climates. There are quite a few varieties of this genus in Mother’s Garden. One of the varieties of ‘Spiritual Happiness’ is the ‘Scented Geranium’ with leaves that have a strong fragrance of mint and many other perfumes when lightly rubbed. The geranium you photographed is again different from the one often seen with a ball-like inflorescence in shades of pink red, rose, white salmon, etc.

Your photograph of a form of ‘Spiritual Happiness’ below is very well done. Congratulations!

There are one or two more flowers in those you sent me but I shall conclude here as the entire day has been devoted to this letter and tonight we have the OM Choir in Savitri Bhavan, Auroville.

Here are two quotes from the artist, Georgia O’Keeffe

“I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.”

“Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time.”

And a few quotes to uplift you in your aspiration, the last from Sri Aurobindo.

Flowers reflect the human search for meaning. Does not each one of us, no matter how our life has gone, ache to have a life as beautiful and true to itself as that of a flower?

Philip Moffit

If thou wouldst attain to thy highest, go look upon a flower; what that does will-lessly, that do thou willingly.

Friedrich von Schiller

Flowers are the moment’s representation of things that are in themselves eternal.

Sri Aurobindo

Photography can teach us so much - patience, harmony of design, composition, a deeper appreciation of aesthetic beauty, perspective, artistic color combination, how to best utilize light and aesthetic refinement. Above all, it can help us enter into a more intimate contact with flowers opening in us a deeper appreciation of their beauty and through this the opening of our own psychic being that alone has the capacity to reveal the essential nature of each flower, feel its aspiration and the message if offers to the world.

Photography of flowers can also bring us into a greater understanding of the offering of Nature and the beauty She manifests. We may even begin to explore landscape photography, woodlands, forest and seas, birds and animals, sunsets and sunrises and all the beauty earth reveals to us, that we might develop a true love and respect for this divine creation, for we will see with a deeper eye than the one with which we view this seemingly ordinary life, develop an intimacy with the divinity hidden in things, appreciate even the ‘common’ weed which is, in truth, Nature’s blanket she uses to cover the earth, preventing the loss of her life-giving topsoil that would lead to eventual desertification.

Please remember that all I have written about your first steps in flower photography should be taken as observations (and not criticisms) from a life lived with plants, discovering and understanding their nature, their physical needs and, above all, loving them.

You have embarked upon a wonderful adventure that may well prove to be a significant aspect of your sadhana, revealing the inner nature of flowers and their messages and living in the full light and guidance of your psychic being. I commend you on this initial effort and assure you that you can always be certain of my help and encouragement.

With my love and prayers for your “adventure of consciousness and joy” – (Part of a line from Sri Aurobindo’s ‘Savitri’)

With my love and prayers,

At Their Feet,

Narad

Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Puducherry

August 7, 2012