PORTLAND, Maine — I’m a photojournalist by trade and spend most of my time making pictures for news stories.
That means I shoot a lot of portraits, folks at work, defendants in court and, occasionally, a crime scene.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate beauty.
Left to my own devices outside of work, I tend to photograph whatever is around me. This time of year, while out walking my dog, I can’t help but notice the vibrant flowers blooming all over.
One of the best times to photograph blossoms and greenery is just after a good soaking, when it’s still cloudy-bright and diamond-like beads of water are clinging to everything. The water gives the already gorgeous flowers a bit of added sparkle. Light cloud cover can reduce harsh shadows, giving your subjects a soft, rounded appearance.
This week’s forecast is calling for plenty of rain and clouds but don’t let that get you down. Instead, grab your camera, go outside and start snapping photos of the flowers doing their best to brighten up this glum stretch of weather.
Here are some tips to think about while you’re out there.
Get in close
Blossoms are amazing and intricate miracles of nature. Get in as close as your camera will focus and show off those stamens, pistils and petals. When you get in close, you tell the viewer what the picture is about and show them the most important part of your composition. It is easy to see a flower as just a blob of color on a green background until you get in close and notice its individual parts, all of which have their own shape, color and texture.
Blur the rest
While you’re in close, use a shallow depth of field, to blur the background, and make the flower pop out of its surroundings. On a manual camera, that means you want to shoot with the widest aperture possible, something like f4.5 or f2.8. You may have to crank the shutter speed up, or the ISO down, to get there. Some cameras have a special setting for just such a thing, often denoted — helpfully — with a symbol of a flower. If you’re shooting with your smartphone (and don’t be afraid to do that) use the portrait mode. That setting will do the same thing.
Step back
You can also take the opposite approach. Instead of looking at an individual flower, get back a bit and place that plant in context with its environment. Maybe a slash of yellow buttercups, seen together, make an interesting pattern in a field of green. Or perhaps a stand of lupins is poking its head above a ragged patch of water-beaded witch grass.
Get a different view
It’s easy to get stuck in the visual rut of stooping over every flower, looking straight down on it. Those are probably good pictures but they’re not the only one’s available. Instead of looking down all the time, try looking up. Get down on the ground and have a peek at the world from the flower’s perspective. Or point your camera up at a bloom on a tree above you. Sometimes, a petal or leaf reveals its inner structure when you see it, half translucent, against the sky.
Don’t go far
You have to go on a safari to find stunning flowers. You probably have some of the loveliest plants in the world, right in your own backyard. I made the photos accompanying this article in my own yard, at my neighbor’s flower bed and around a local walking trail in Portland. Madonna wasn’t kidding when she sang “beauty’s where you find it” in her 1990 hit ” Vogue.” That’s what I like about photography. It can help you zero in on the magic right in front of you, by cropping out the rest of the world as you look through the viewfinder.
Go wild
The biggest rule of flower photography is that there are no rules. All tips, including mine, are just places to start. If the wind is blowing and nothing will stay still long enough to get a good shot, give up and go with that flow. Start moving your camera, too. Make your flower pix about the swirl of color in front of you. If your camera won’t focus as close as you’d like on a flower, just get as close as you can and then crop it in post. There’s nothing shameful about that. If the bugs are driving you mad, pick some flowers and take them home to your bug-free windowsill.
Just make sure you have fun out there. Enjoy what you see and feel free to email me with any questions you have about photography.
