Frequently Asked Questions

Why do the images on this site have "© www.australianflora.com.au" printed through the image? More
Does www.australianflora.com.au ship internationally? More
Are my credit card details secure? More
Are the photographic prints for sale by www.australianflora.com.au simply shot with a digital camera and what will the image quality of my print be? More
What quality are the photographic prints I buy from www.australianflora.com.au? More
How long will my photographic prints from www.australianflora.com.au last when hung up for viewing in my home or office? More
Are the photographic prints sold by www.australianflora.com.au just mass produced copies? More
Are the www.australianflora.com.au images touched up or modified by software such as Photoshop? More
Parts of the image appear to be out of focus. More
Why is it that some www.australianflora.com.au pictures are available in large sizes and others are only available in much smaller sizes? More
Are the www.australianflora.com.au photographs taken of plants in nurseries and gardens, or are they captured in the wild? More
Do I get any documentation with my prints? More
How are my prints shipped? More
Are www.australianflora.com.au print shipments insured? More
What are the normal delivery times for orders from www.australianflora.com.au? More
Do we have a retail location where you can inspect and buy prints? More
Are photographic prints from www.australianflora.com.au available at any retail outlets? More
Are www.australianflora.com.au photographic prints available to view at any galleries? More
If I'm not happy with my prints, do you have a returns policy? More

Why do the images on this site have "© www.australianflora.com.au" printed through the image?

The text appearing on the images on this site is a "watermark" that shows our copyright over the images. This deters people from downloading the images from the site and printing them, for free. Although the images on this website are a very poor substitute for the real photographs, some people don't want quality, just free images. The photographer puts his heart and soul into these images so we have to protect copyright.

The prints you buy from www.australianflora.com.au do not have any watermark or printing through the image or anywhere on the print at all.

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Does www.australianflora.com.au ship internationally?

Absolutely. In fact almost all photographic prints sold from this site are shipped to Europe and North America. Most Australian sales are via museums, galleries and exhibitions. We ship out overseas every day. You can find out more here.

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Are the photographic prints for sale by www.australianflora.com.au simply done with a digital camera and what will the image quality of my print be?

All prints offered by www.australianflora.com.au are from original 4" x 5" or 6cm x 7cm or 2 1/4" sq (6x6cm) "positive" transparencies that have been drum scanned and professionally printed. The replacement cost of the cameras, lenses and lighting systems alone is currently in excess of US$40,000.00; this is no amateur system.

We've chosen the images to present from a collection of over 20,000+ transparencies, taken over the last 30 years.

The image quality of these prints is simply stunning. See more on this?

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Are the photographic prints sold by www.australianflora.com.au just mass produced copies?

No. Each print is hand produced when ordered. While the image is stored in our system from a drum scanned master, when the order is placed, the image is sent down to the Lambda 130 printer which is set to the ordered size. So each print is an original and not a cheap mass produced copy. You can see more information on the photographic and printing process here.

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Are the www.australianflora.com.au images touched up or modified by software such as Photoshop?

The answer is, NO! Although sometimes when transparencies have a small scratch that occurs during film processing it is brushed out with software. Having said that, film scratches are rare on our films due to the fact that we insist on "dip and dunk" processing, where the film is not fed through rollers.

Photographs modified and enhanced in software such as Photoshop become works of art, not photographs. Almost all other photographers in our field are selling "works of art." The fact that the Australian Flora images are "as shot" makes them all the more unique and valuable. Anyone can enhance an image with software - very, very few people can capture images such as the Australian Flora photographers have.

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Parts of the image appear to be out of focus.

In many www.australianflora.com.au images parts of the image appear to be out of focus. This is true and it's intentionally like this for two reasons:
Because many of these flowers are so delicate and small, the camera lens needs to be within 2-4" (5-10 cm) and sometimes closer. No camera lens has a depth of field (range of focused area) larger than .125" or 3mm at these close distances, so only a small area will be in focus. The photographer will be focusing on a part of a flower, usually a stamen, in the image.

The second reason is that the photographer often chooses to use a large aperture (and less depth of field), to intentionally blur the background, so as not to detract from the area of the flower on which he's focusing.

However, because images mean different things to different people, you will notice that in many cases, we've presented many images of the same flower taken from different distances and focusing on different areas of the flower. The result is that you can choose the image that pleases you the most.

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Why is it that some www.australianflora.com.au pictures are available in large sizes and others are only available in much smaller sizes?

Four types of cameras have been used and two types of film. The camera formats were 4"x5" (a Cambo view camera), 6x7cm (a Mamiya RB67 ProS) and a 6x6cm camera (a Rolleiflex 6008) and finally a small number of images were captured on a Nikon F4 35mm camera. These cameras each give a different image size. Films used were Fujifilm Velvia 50 and Velvia 100, so not only image sizes vary but image quality varies with the speed of film used.

As a result, the drum scanned images can be from nearly 1GB in size down to around 100MB. The drum scanned density and quality determine how much enlargement we deem to be be enough to retain top image quality. The upshot is that we limit the size of print available depending upon the image quality.
We won't compromise on this.

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Are the www.australianflora.com.au photographs taken of plants in nurseries and gardens, or are they captured in the wild?

All the images offered were photographed in the wild in their natural setting. No flower was ever picked or damaged during these field trips.
Of course this meant lugging very heavy "medium format" cameras, tripods, lighting and other gear many miles through rugged country. For some of the orchids, this was most difficult as tree scaling was involved.

For most of the ground dwelling plants, the photographer needed to be no more than one foot (30cm) off the ground, among Australia's notorious venomous snakes and funnel web spiders, both the world's deadliest.

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Do I get any documentation with my prints?

Yes for all prints we provide a certificate stating what the plant is, its botanical "pedigree" as well as a lot of other information about it, such as who first found it, who named it, the photographer, the location as well as where else it's found.

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What are the normal delivery times for orders from www.australianflora.com.au?

We don't stockpile prints; all orders are custom printed. All print orders from www.australianflora.com.au are produced against your order from start to finish. So we usually don't despatch until five days after we receive the order. The normal shipping time from then is 5 - 12 days, depending upon your country. So you should receive your order infrom 9 to 16 days from the date or ordring. You can find out more on shipping here.

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Do we have a retail location where you can inspect and buy prints?

No. We've tried to keep the prices down so we've not gone to the expense of opening a retail store and paying to staff it. We've found that most of our customers are outside Australia, so it would not benefit them at all.

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Are photographic prints from www.australianflora.com.au available at any retail outlets?

No. We've felt that the quality of the prints would be demeaned by placing them in a retail outlet, as well as the fact that these prints are not mass produced and are painstakingly produced against each order.

Having said that, some museum shops and botanic garden outlets are able to supply you with any print shown on this site. Please email sales@australianflora.com.au giving us your country and nearest city and we'll be able to tell you if someone nearby has a stock of some of our prints.

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Are www.australianflora.com.au photographic prints available to view at any galleries?

Some photographic galleries feature some of our prints some of the time. Galleries try to change their displays fairly regularly. Email us at sales@australianflora.com.au telling us which country you're in and we'll tell you if there are any exhibitions of our www.australianflora.com.au near you.

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If I'm not happy with my prints, do you have a returns policy?

Absolutely. If you're not happy with prints you've bought on line on this site, return them to us within seven days of receipt in pristine condition, in their original packaging, for a full refund. To qualify, the package must bear a returning post mark from your country that is no later than 30 days from despatch from us. However, we'd like to tell you that we've never had a print returned; they're that good. We can't offer this refund policy for www.australianflora.com.au prints bought at galleries and other outlets, as the refund would need to be applied by the selling organization.

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