Dahlias at Anglesey Abbey

Last weekend I visited Anglesey Abbey for their Dahlia festival.  There were several artful arrangements of the cut flowers dotted around the grounds, which personally I didn't find all that interesting.  Instead I headed to the section of the garden that had the living blooms.  Here Dahlias of all shapes and colours could be found. 

My plan was to use the variety of flowers for some creative images.  I started with some in-camera double exposures.  These are much easier with the Olympus EM1 than with my Canon 40D, thanks to the ability to see the first image in the view finder when framing the second.  For some shots I chose two contrasting flowers for the double image.  For others, I used the same flower, turning the camera between the first and second shots.

 

 

After that I tried some intentional camera movement.  These were much more hit and miss.  I tried spinning the camera during the exposure, but I couldn't get the swirls I was after.

 

Finally, apparently not everyone likes "fluffy" images, so here are some straightforward detail shots.