Infrared Nature Photos by Michel Franks
It is my belief that Nature's patterns and colours are the most artistic. Take a butterfly's wings; they are an inspiration for any dress designer and the colours, shapes and varieties of flowers is nothing short of miraculous.
I photograph the inside of flowers from about three inches (75mm) away or in profusion, these images perhaps touch our deepest selves. Printed a metre square, they remind us of the bounty of Summer. Flowers, fruit and vegetables are the blossoms of freshness and life. Zooming in on this essence provides, I think, distillations of beauty and purity.
Insects, those much neglected and maligned creatures, all have their own habitat and food plants. It is this delicate ecosystem that is, so often, under pressure. Extinction threatens some species while many are as yet undiscovered.
My flower photographs are only a conscious effort to record and keep what are universally recognised as tokens of love and friendship when offered as gifts.