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Category: photos and garden photography

Some of our favourite plant and garden photographs not featuring in other gardeners tips. tips for your own garden photography.

Beat Garden Blues and Bee Happy

Beat Garden Blues and Bee Happy

Rumour that Bees are in terminal decline is not borne out in my garden this year. The Bees seem very happy on the blue flowers and I am happy as it gives me an excuse to show some more blue photographs (of flowers!).

It is hard to be ‘blue’ when your senses are fully engaged.

  • Creating a buzz provides a new sensory experience in the garden and it make a change from the sound of wind and the patter of rain.
  • On the other hand I have just felt the pain from pruning a very prickly leaved Berberis that will now have fewer blue berries for the blackbirds later this year.
  • The Californian Lilac below is exuding its share of perfume to scent the nostrils.
  • I can barely wait for the Blueberry and Bilberry season to deliver the taste of my favourite fruit. I can’t think of a blue vegetable unless you count purple sprouting broccoli but if I have missed your favourite let me know.
  • ‘Seeing red’ as a phrase could be replaced with ‘seeing blue’ when you consider some of the great blue flowering plants.

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Photography Tips For Gardeners

Photography Tips For Gardeners

Think before you Click

  • It may seem obvious but think why you are taking a photo in the first place. Is it a documentary record, a social occasion, a personal pleasure or a potential item for publication and wider use.
  • Plan your viewpoint and composition using important features and eliminating unwanted items. Framing subjects and using items, even those behind you, may improve the image.
  • Do not be tempted to cram in too much detail that causes conflict or unneeded complexity.
  • Think about texture, shape, patterns and perspective in addition to the all important colour.
  • Check the light and how various shadows will fall. My shadow features in too many photographs

Close up Tips

  • Getting close and personal can reveal details of plants not normally inspected such as shapes patterns and colour contrasts. Small sections of a bigger subject can be very interesting.
  • It may be necessary to use a tripod to keep the camera still
  • Also consider wind breaks as shelter or supporting methods to hold plants still.
  • Macro facilities on a digital camera or extension tubes on SLR’s help get really close.
  • Use small apertures to get a depth of field. Hold the camera parallel to the most important feature of the photograph.
  • Take several shots and be patient

Other Gardeners Photo Tips

  • Use low view points.
  • Highlight contrasting colours
  • Try   unusual compositions and repetitions repeatedly.
  • Droplets of water on flowers may improve and freshen up the image. Spray drops of glycerine if you are very keen.
  • I need to practice what I preach by keeping a record of what, where and when an image was taken and published.

 

 

 

Artistic Gardeners Meadow Vista

Artistic Gardeners Meadow Vista

fritilliaria

Fritillary, Buttercups, Bluebells, Tulips and Narcissus all in the same shot, what more could you ask.

Well the star of this show is probably the grass. The grass is understated and not throttling the flowers. The sunshine is highlighting a grassy area near where the photographer has chosen to stand. The grass stops the mixture of colours and shapes from fighting one another bringing some harmony.

Artistic Comment

The photographer has found  a relatively low position to capture the flowers at the front of the photo. The dark trees provide a suitable back drop and contrast. Overall the composition works despite the complexity and variety of the flora. The depth of field allows enough focus highlighting the tulips. The eye of the curious looker is drawn around the image.

The garden designer has composed the image mixing blues, yellows and purples with the spring-fresh greens.The maintenance gardener has enabled the themes to work.

Not quite a meadow more a wild patch created with tlc.

Seed Quizzes – What are These Seedheads

Seed Quizzes – What are These Seedheads

lupin seedheads

Knipfolia seedheads

allium seedheads

peonie seedheads

Teasel seedheads

poppy seedheads

For the answers hover over the photograph. The variety shouldn’t affect how the seed looks but there may be differences in the seedhead itself.

Seeds to use For a Children’s Quiz

  1. A pea is a seed
  2. Sunflower seeds with your breakfast or in your bread are interesting seeds.
  3. Potatoes are seeds or more correctly tubers that act like seeds.
  4. Wild Bird and budgie seed are obviously seeds. They often sprout into grasses or millet.
  5. There are lots of different beans to use in a seed quiz – even baked beans count but they will never germinate as they have been cooked.
  6. Mustard and cress seeds are fun to sow and grow and you soon learn the difference between the two.
  7. Apple or orange pips are easy to collect.
  8. Soft fruit have lots of seed and on strawberries they grow on the outside of the red skin

 

Photos from Waterperry Garden Oxfordshire

Photos from Waterperry Garden Oxfordshire

Waterperry is a small village eight miles east of Oxford. It lies on the River Thame (not to be confused with River Thames), though the Thame does end up feeding into the Thames. The extensive gardens and river-side setting offer a combination of formal gardens, flowing herbaceous borders and wildlife meadows by the river.
Waterperry gardens
Helenium

Waterperry gardens

Mixed border …

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Orange Flower Photo Club

Orange Flower Photo Club

I have just bought a non-stop flowering begonia cunningly entitled ‘Begonia Orange’. Here are some more orange blooms until the begonia gets going.
Harewood 052

We host a lot of our pictures on Flikr but regrettably I do not include much in the way of description, comment or location.

One feature of Flikr that I am using more progressively is the Groups feature. Here you can link your pictures to the club or group by theme. Some gardener related themes are based on flower colour or family grouping like Iridacea. I have posted several Orange Flower Photos to the club link.

Madiera mch11 415

Flikr Orange Group Rules

  • Post your pictures of Orange Flowers to the group and your photos will get many more views than they would in a general flower group.
  • There are currently 3874 members displaying a total of 17,760 flowers photos. (Oct 10 2011)
  • The simple rules allow you to post 3 photos a day to the group.
  • Real flowers only that are as close to their original appearance in nature as possible.
  • Pictures should feature the flower or flowers, preferably up close. lease do not post pictures where the flowers are only a small focal point.They should be the main part of the picture.
  • Don’t post the same picture to more than one of the color flower groups. Decide which color group it best fits, and only post it to that group.

gerberas a smile
This Gerbera has been distorted by nature and other flowers from the same plant are unlikely to be the same. This feature is called fascination and can happen in many species of plants.

Poppy Polly

This poppy hints at the tints of orange from just off yellow through to the near full blooded red with orange overtones in the begonia in the featured image on the blog.

See our colour wheel article

Tips for Your Front Garden

Tips for Your Front Garden

Iris

Lovely climbing rose on the front of this house

The Front garden is a great part of English life. Unfortunately there is increasingly a trend to replace the front garden with concrete so people can park a car. But, what better way to start the day than walking through a bit of garden at the front of your house.

The Huge Flower Approach

Front Garden Oxford

If you want to give joy to passers by, go for a real impact and fill it with lots of colour. These dahlias give an excellent summer long flowering display – you will just need to spend time watering. Every bit of space has been maximised with these hanging baskets

The Zen Approach to Front Gardens

Front Garden

A bit of gravel and reserved planting gives a very relaxed feel. It helps sooth the nerves, especially because the work to maintain is much reduced.

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