Growing up on an Arabian-horse farm in Pennsylvania in the 1970s and ’80s, David Leaser honed his photography skills at an early age, taking pictures of champion horses for their owners. After finishing school he worked in the technology field for companies such as IBM, shooting landscapes for pleasure in his free time. In 2005 he published a book, Palm Trees: A Story in Photographs, and he eventually turned his attention to photography full-time. Inspired by the South American landscapes of the 19th-century painter Frederic Church, Leaser made a trip to the Amazon in 2008. While there, he took many photos of the lush vistas, but it was the details that captivated him.

Leaser says that he was “struck by the tiniest flowers on the rainforest floor. Each held an amazing secret, a complete ecosystem with insects and other living things. Yet they are often overlooked because of their diminutive scale.”

Upon his return, Leaser began to photograph individual, often exotic blooms in his studio. Using a Nikon D3X camera attached to special equipment that helps him to capture the flowers in microscopic detail, he shoots the specimens against a plain black—or, more recently, white—backdrop, creating images that glow with eye-popping color and pattern.

Printed on canvas and framed, Leaser’s images come in two limited-edition formats: The Collector’s Edition prints (up to 46" x 60") are $4,200 each, and the smaller Silver Edition prints (up to 26" x 48") are $1,500. They are sold by a number of galleries as well as directly on his website, along with smaller prints and postcards. For more details visit davidleaser.com.