Louann Smith was a lawyer and a gardener before she became a photographer. She credits both early pursuits – and a castoff camera – for leading her into photography.
“I have to give credit to my husband for bringing photography to me,” she says. “My creative outlet was strictly my garden, which is a wonderful creative outlet to have. You can experiment with color and form and even things like rhythm in your garden. That was what I did.”
Before a trip to Africa by the couple in 2011, Richard Smith upgraded to “a really nice DSLR camera and got really into photography,” says his wife. “He gave me the old camera [a Fuji X-T2] and said, ‘Why don’t you take pictures of your flowers?’ I started doing that, and I loved it.
“I was practicing law and using the left side of my brain, the analytical, reasoning, language side of my brain. When I take photographs, the right brain gets to be in charge, the nonverbal, visual part of my brain. It’s been a thrill to do this.”
Smith has a show of 20 to 25 of her floral images, “Fotographia Florilegia,” opening Friday at Exum Gallery and continuing through Nov. 3.