Pointed and Shot Garden Photography

Flowers and plants are some of the most popular subjects for many photographers, whether they have a fancy DSLR camera with a macro lens or a simple point and shoot like the one I used to take these. I think the main challenge with garden close-ups is how to create results that are unique. Since flower close-up photos are so ubiquitous, meeting this goal often takes some creativity. Since I did not have the luxury or the know-how of manual camera controls at the time, the two main tools I used were the camera's flash and some unusual angles. A few of them break some of the rules and may not have the best composition, but I think that these shots are worth saving and posting all the same.

Color is one of the main focuses of these shots, and I left them out of Photoshop just as with my other collections of point and shoot photography from past years. My favorite part of the second one from the top is the depth and detail of the green plants. I would have been a little happier if the white flowers were a tad sharper, but I'll take this one. The one directly below (third from the top) was the most random shot. I took it by holding the camera down at a diagonal underneath the pink and yellow rose. Since there was no viewfinder, I had no way of knowing what the result would be. If you have a point and shoot camera, go outside and try this; it can be really fun with a few tries.

The third shot down also breaks a little bit of one of the main rules of photography: keep the sun out of the frame. It is not fully in the image, although it does still give enough of a highlight at the top to be noticeable. In this case, it lights up the flower from behind. Sometimes a rule broken leads to something pleasantly unexpected.

My fourth and fifth images were taken with an automatic flash, and I followed another common photo rule here: get closer. A particular favorite is the fifth one that has a certain depth of field. Another related tip for flower photography is to shoot on a day with at least somewhat diffused lighting. Partially cloudy days are particularly helpful for achieving good results.

Taking these kinds of garden shots is also best done in various lighting conditions during different times of the day. The same flowers can look remarkably different in morning versus evening light. To avoid the common problem of unwanted shadows, many photographers remove the hood on their camera lens before getting up close to their garden subject matter.

While I didn't always follow this rule, I also tried to keep the main flowers out of the exact center of each shot. Sometimes this compositional technique worked better than other times. Placing each bloom evenly slightly off center creates a higher degree of visual interest according to the rule of thirds in general art composition technique.