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ABOUT THE WEBSITE
In the spring of
1996, the Orchid Photo Page began as a simple exercise in html, to
provide a small gallery of some photos I had taken of our orchids, and a
few AOS award photos. Although I had done some AOS award photography for
local shows, it was not until the West Palm Beach judging center opened
in April, 1992 that I saw a steady stream of high quality orchids. The
early images here were from slides scanned to Kodak photoCD which
provided easy digital content, though of somewhat spotty quality.
I bought my first digital camera in 1997 (an Olympus with about
.75mp resolution), but it was not much use for shooting orchids. The
following year I bought a Kodak DC260 with a whopping 1.5megapixels
which was eminently serviceable for taking studio photos of orchids - it
even allowed me to plug in my studio lights! That was a fun camera and
had enough features to be a photographic tool. I upgrade digital cameras as
their evolution warrants it. Not only has the quality of digicams
improved by lightyears, so has post-camera image processing.
In
September 2007, after eleven and a half years, I made a major design overhaul to The Orchid Photo Page. The motivation for this decision was the burdensome amount of work it took to update the old HTML website. This new format allows me to add a steady stream of new orchid photos for your viewing pleasure.
A
NOTE ON NAMES
We take a
conservative approach on orchid taxonomy. We are definitely not the first
people on the block to rush out and change our tags when some scientist
offers up the latest DNA evidence. At this website you will more than likely find orchids
listed by their old names. Change is okay, we just prefer to do it only
once if possible. In the past five years, some orchids have gone through their Encyclia, Euchile, Prosthechea faster than you can say young whippersnapper, or old curmudgeon. In a nod to avoid being called the latter, keywords allow you to search for any and all orchid species names, new or old. Call it a Phaius or a Gastrorchis...you can still find it at the OPP.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Greg Allikas is known the world over for his brilliant photographs of orchids. His extensive knowledge of his subject and artistic background offer a unique interpretation that is both accurate, and stunningly beautiful. Greg has been a commercial photographer in the Palm Beaches and is well known for his library of theater photography. An orchid grower since 1970, Allikas is awards photographer for the AOS West Palm Beach Judging Center, Florida-Caribbean Judging Center in Miami, and many annual South Florida orchid shows including Miami International, Ft. Lauderdale, Delray Beach, Deerfield Beach, Naples and Boca Raton. His photos are regularly seen in numerous AOS publications including the annual calendar and the AQ+ and Orchids
magazine. He has written articles for both Orchids magazine and Orchid
Digest and has been published in Germany, South America, Sweden and in the Russian magazine, World
of Orchids. Greg also has many photos in the latest editions of the
Sunset and Ortho books on orchids and supplied all of the photography for Growing Orchids is Fun (Hollingsworth), Orchids to Know and Grow (Sheehan & Black), and Orquideas en la Gran Ciudad (Verdura). The latter is the first book on orchid culture written and published in Spain. The book Orchids (Thunder Bay
Press, 2000), co-authored with Ned Nash, features over 200 of his
photos. In November 2005, Thunder Bay Press published a second
Allikas-Nash book, The World's Most Beautiful Orchids
which features over 500 photographs and 450 pages of text. A third Allikas-Nash collaboration;
Four Seasons of Orchids.
has been published by Creative Homeowner. This 256-page book features more culture information than
the previous two volumes and deals with culture from a seasonal
approach.
In
2005 Allikas
was honored to consult on, and supply photography for a United Nations
Postal Administration endangered species stamp release featuring 12
endangered orchid species. He has also the recipient of the Silver Medal from the American Orchid Societyfor his service. Greg is a popular speaker and in demand at orchid societies across the U.S.
He especially enjoys field trips to photograph orchids in their native
habitats and rarely turns down an invitation to see and photograph
orchids growing in the wild.
Greg and Kathy maintain a mixed collection of over 1,000 orchids
comprised of Cattleyas & Laelias, Vandaceous, Dendrobiums and
Oncidium allies as well as many unusual species orchids.
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