Flowers are beautiful. People like photographs of flowers and they are my best-selling photos. We need beauty in our lives. But have you noticed that, while you see many photos of flowers, some grab you more than others? There is so much to consider – how to frame the photo, how to get a sense of shape instead of having an image plopped in the center of the viewfinder, how to avoid over-exposing. So many floral photographs reflect the sunlight so brightly that it detracts from the image. So I’ll explore a number of photos that I consider especially good and I’ll tell you why. You may not agree, but at least this can expose you to possible considerations. These are not typical flower photos, but you can see many other floral photos here.
One advantage to photographing flowers is that they aren’t going anywhere. They may sway in the wind, but they won’t run away. So you have time to get to know your subject. By that I mean look at the flowers from different angles, observe the smaller details, get down at ground level with the flowers, stand directly above them. And using digital, you can then take as many photos as you want.
I saw this sunflower while driving through the Edna Valley across the highway from Pismo. You might think, well, that’s a forlorn-looking flower, past its prime, sort of faded. And you’d be right. But the lack of perfection is what I like. The pattern (I talked about pattern a couple of blogs ago) of the missing seeds looks like eyes. The section of darker seeds looks a bit like a mouth. In other words, when I looked at this sunflower it became anthorpomorphized for me – I saw a flower that indeed was forlorn, not really happy, a little droopy. Another thing I like about this picture is that the sky blends off of the page – so you can’t really tell where the photo ends. Just a few patches of blue show through.
I took this photo up on Rancheria Road in Kern County, CA. I focused on the patch of fiddlenecks running from top left to bottom right and let the rest fade out using the macro setting. This just gives some interest to the photo. A field of flowers is fantastic; this is just a way to give it a twist.
This was also taken on Rancheria Road – 2009 was a banner year for wildflowers. I kept the foreground in focus and let the back keep an impressionistic feel. I wasn’t sure that it would work to have the one, lone orange flower on the left show up, but it did work. By keeping that to the left of the photo and not centering it, the composition is more interesting.
In this photo of an orchard, I deliberately centered the horizon. I wanted symmetry and was thinking perspective. I think these are almond trees but I’m not sure. I was keeping my eye on this orchard until there were enough petals on the ground to give an feeling of snow. I wanted the long view also. But I was after another look also, which is the next photo.
I moved the horizon over to the left but didn’t cut out the other side entirely. I was trying for a diagonal line from corner to corner. There are lots of exciting ways to look at something with the pattern of an orchard. Hold up a paper to this photo and cut off the left side and have the photo border be the end of the row of trees. It looks a lot different that way. I like it better like this because leaving that little bit of the other side of the row gives more depth to the photo.
This dahlia was taken in Butchart Gardens, Victoria, in Canada. I am a bright-color person. I know that subtle shades are more sophisticated but color is still “it” for me. However, this photo interests me because the bud of the unopened flower in front of the already fading flower actually looks like the center of the flower – as if it’s one flower, not an old and a new. If you want to really get into symbolism, it’s like birth and death. Then there is the bud on the lower right – almost upsidedown, giving a slight feeling of movement to the photo. When photographing flowers, they aren’t going anywhere. So you can take your time and get to know your subject before shooting.
I”m going to call this a flower for the sake of this blog. At least it’s a leaf. And this is an excellent example of what I was talking about in a previous blog – look in front of you, in back of you, to the sides – AND up and down. I was looking down at a path in Stanley Gardens in Vancouver and saw this beautiful leaf. It had left an impression on the walkway and somehow got flipped over. I think it’s beautiful and I would have missed it if I’d just been looking straight ahead.
Finally, color, contrast and pattern. These green leaves would be unremarkable but for the vivid blue wall behind them. Leaving the tall plant on the left, which is casting shadows on the wall, gives some depth to the photo and also allows for gradation of color. This was in Costa Rica, and we loved all the bright colors so much that we found paint colors based on photos and painted our living room walls all a different bright color. Not for everyone, maybe, but it makes us happy!
So these are just a few ideas to vary how you photograph flowers. Perhaps the most important point is to take your time to understand your subject from all angles. Also, if you are after wildflowers, some years are good, some are bad, and you need to do a lot of driving around to scope out the situation.
[...] brown lump is a cow. I did a post last year on photographing wildflowers. This may be a good time to link to [...]