The Craft of Cannabis Photography
It’s been a while since I wrote my last blog. I’ve been busy, trying to grow, trying to learn in this Cannabis scene.
I’m not going to lie, it's been hard. The California cannabis industry changes almost weekly. We thought we had it good at the beginning of legalization, little did we know that it was a brief ‘high’, no pun intended. But I guess the entire economy is struggling right now.
Some companies survived, others got bought out. Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to navigate this industry in my own right.
A few months ago I left my job to go pursue a passion, trying to create a career that didn’t even exist 5 years ago. I’m talking about cannabis photography.
Cannabis photography?!? What’s that?
Well, I’m glad you asked, or I guess I asked. As you can imagine, just like any other industry, the cannabis industry requires photos of its products, especially brands trying to distinguish themselves in an oversaturated market. But unlike other industries, the cannabis space requires a unique lens (both literally and metaphorically) to really see what sets us apart.
If you haven’t caught on yet (I guess you haven’t really looked around). I’m specifically talking about trichome photography. If you don’t know what Trichomes are, I suggest you check my other blog, “Trichomes: A closer look at cannabis.” Don’t worry, I was consuming cannabis for over 10 years before I ever learned what a trichome was. But I’ll give you a brief recap.
Trichomes are probably the single most important part of growing Cannabis for the medical or recreational market. They can range anywhere from 15–200 micrometers. Yes, you heard me correct, micrometers, and they contain all the essential THC and Cannabinoids that give Cannabis its unique effects. Trichomes are the shiny coating you might see on Cannabis buds, the ‘frost’ put in another way. To properly capture these magnificent mushroom-like appendages, you need to master the technique of focus stacking. Focus stacking is simply the process of capturing multiple images of a single subject at different distances and then merging the focused area to create one fully focused image.
In my line of work, sometimes it can take 100–200 individual images to create one fully focused picture. The closer we get (the higher the magnification) the more photos you need.
Capturing Cannabis this way is the Cannabis industry’s equivalent of high fashion. Those that appreciate quality and art can’t help but be mesmerized by the intrinsic beauty that is always present in Cannabis but is usually difficult to capture. That is what happened to me, I was mesmerized and inspired by the photographers that came before me. It was the OG’s, @kandidkush and @erik.nugshots both revolutionaries in their own right, that first put me on. Their work made me obsessed, simply seeing their art inspired me to continually improve. As I continued to grow and learn I had the help of other amazing Cannabis photographers such as @perrrmafade @not_curt_ice, @pixelnug, @zoom_gardens,@artofcannabis, @terpodactylmedia, and many more amazing artists I forget to mention.
Cannabis photography is a relatively new niche in photography. While macro photography has been around for years, utilizing this technique for Cannabis (along with the abundance of some of the finest flowers in the world) is still a budding sector. As legalization continues across America, this method of photography will become an essential marketing tool for companies to differentiate themselves from the pack.
Why is Cannabis Photography important?
For brands, this is a way to create quality content that represents the quality of their products. But in many ways, these images are also educational, both for cultivators and consumers. To understand the structure of the plants, the trichome’s expression, their maturity, etc., we can understand what makes each cannabis plant, and strain unique. For breeders, it allows them to more precisely understand their unique genetic expression allowing them to make more educated selections. For everyone else, it’s simply something beautiful to look at and generally an introduction to the world of trichomes.
So while as much as my work is a representation and expression of myself, it is also an ode to all the other Cannabis photographers, pushing the boundary in what defines high-end Cannabis content.
