Building Terrariums | Living Fresh Flower School | Personal Documentary Work

One good thing about being a wedding photographer is that I get to meet really cool people in the wedding industry like Tina Ridell of Living Fresh Flower Studio. If you’re looking for a creative florist in Kitchener-Waterloo, Tina is the one for you. Her distinct style on creating beautiful, organic, and elegant arrangements is well known among her peers. Her work will definitely add wonderfully to the look of your wedding.

Tina and her good friend, Deb, also run the Living Fresh Flower School in Kitchener. Anyone interested in taking floral design classes either for fun or as training grounds to help get an entry-level job in the floral industry should go and check them out. I’ve always appreciated pretty flower arrangements. So I was absolutely thrilled when it was Tina agreed to let me photograph one of her class for my own personal documentary work.

After attending WPPI this past March, I was inspired to more personal work for my own growth as an artist. The idea is to expand your perspective. Shooting the same things all the time can sometimes leave you feeling a little stagnant. As much as I enjoy photographing weddings, it doesn’t hurt to shoot other stuff and start seeing things differently.

The class I documented was on building terrariums. A terrarium is like an aquarium for plants — plants thriving in a glass container. Once the plants form a balanced ecosystem within the enclosed container, its maintenance is literally minimal. Aside from being aesthetically pleasing, they also make wonderful green gifts!

I had a really great time photographing Tina’s terrarium class. Doing this project was  refreshing and I now understand why shooting more personal work is important. I will be photographing more of these that’s for sure. What I enjoyed the most was seeing the joy in their students’ faces as they created something beautiful. They had a blast!

Here are a few images from that day.