Leesa McLellan - Fine Art Photography

Floral photography

Born in Toronto, Ontario, 1961, Leesa McLellan’s artistic skills surfaced from an early age. She explored different creative interests including fine art portraits in cont©, watercolour, fashion design, and commercial art techniques which progressed to digital typesetting/production in 1990.

Missing the pencil in hand, she focused on her artistic education in 2002and completed the Visual Arts Foundation Certificate from George Brown College three years later. During this time, she majored in digital photography courses and established her preferred medium. Obtaining instant results through this medium intrigued her. This intrigue has led Leesa to her most current body of work – illuminating flowers.

She wanted to make people look at a universally recognizable object in a completely different way. This has been accomplished through lighting, depth of field and focal points leading to an online gallery showcasing her work. As she continues to develop her photographic skills, she hopes people will appreciate the magnificence of what nature produces.

Technique
I try using minimal lighting, decorative and complimentary backdrops then focus on certain shapes within the viewfinder. The process takes a couple of hours to get one good shot because the creative juices take form once the shutter gets going. Most of these shots are unexpected surprises.

In respects to digital, I use a Nikon D70 with a manual 105mm Micro-NIKKOR 2.8 lens. It produces images with less chromatic aberration than digital under these lighting conditions. Very little photoshop work is done. Subtle curve adjustments and sharpening. Otherwise, it’s directly from the camera. I also use manual settings, never auto. Adjust my white balance sometimes but not all the time.