I recently redesigned the gallery pages of my Portfolio, which meant I went through all of my photos on this site and I noticed that when I first started photography I spent a lot of time photography flowers.

They are a brilliant first subject to get started with. Unlike people they don’t have an opinion on your work. Unlike animals they don’t move.

Flowers can be inside or outside, which means you can experiment with different light: natural, artificial, diffused, etc.

You can take hundreds of images of one subject and challenge yourself with different angles and editing techniques.

This is a challenge so after reading through my examples and ideas, I want you to have a go and get some great images and have fun! The best examples I will include in a future article, with links to the creator’s social media/website. Show me what you can do by sending your photos to me at:

E-mail: info@drlphotography.co.uk

Disclaimer

All images shared with me will remain the property of the creator and will only be displayed with their permission. If you wish to use your own watermark to protect your images and show your brand, then please do. Anyone that has a go at the challenge and communicates with me, shall get a personal response and I hope we can discuss photography more. Your images will never be sold by me or anyone associated with this site. They are your images.

These photography challenges are about creating a community and inspiring creativity for you (my readers) and for myself. It is meant as a way of inspiring each other, critiquing each other and discussing new techniques and ideas.

Example 1 - Sunshine Flower

This is one of my favourite images, I love the colour of the petals and the detail of stamen.

I took this image when I first started photography, I had a Canon 20D and I saved for ages to buy a Canon 60mm Macro lens. Once I got that lens it rarely left my camera. I would wander around my garden and take it almost everywhere, so that if I saw something interesting I could get a great picture.

This flower, for example, was in a garden of Walmer Castle, a fantastic historical site in East Kent. At the time I wasn’t interested in photographing the castle but instead focused on their award winning gardens.

The macro lens enabled me to capture the flower in great detail and using a wide aperture gave me a greater depth of field, allowing more of the flower to be in focus.

To be honest, this is a pretty cliche shot of a flower, but I think that everyone should aspire to cliches so that they can expand their horizons.

Flowers can be a great subject to practice your camera settings, you can combine this challenge with my other photography challenge: Manual Mastery.

To get close to flowers your best bet is to use a macro lens or a lens that can focus as closely as possible.

Example 2 - Purple Petals

Another close up shot, but this has a group of flowers with one central flower in focus and the rest are blurred by bokeh. By getting close and using a wide aperture I have created a contrasting image of colours between the purple flowers and the dark green stems.

This is an important point, because of flowers bright colours they can add a sense of contrast between themselves and their environment. They stick out and add a variety to an otherwise homogenous group. Also by having one flower in focus, the detail of the stamen is heavily pronounced, so that you can examine the details of the flower.

Example 3 - Heather Hoy

If macro photography is not your thing that doesn’t stop you using flowers as a focal point in your landscape imagery, such as this photo from my trip to Orkney.

I was exploring the island of Hoy and I stopped to have a look at the map, as I was heading for the Old Man of Hoy. But while I was stopped I noticed these beautiful bright pink heather, and I had to try and make an image out of them. So I positioned them as my foreground subject, with the raising hills beyond to give a sense of scale and depth.

The bright colours add a lot of contrast to the otherwise dark and gloomy, cloud covered day. But this is just one example of using flowers in landscapes.

Example 4 - Unique

You can also use flowers in street photography, when exploring Monaco I came across a patch of tulips on a roundabout. Amongst the yellow flowers was a single red one and I knew I wanted an image that showed this contrast.

As in Example 2 above, yellow and red are opposing colours just as green and purple are opposites, and I wanted to capture that. Instead of using bokeh to accentuate that opposite, I felt that having all of the flowers in focus would give more impact.

If the background had been better I would have used them as a foreground subject as I did in Orkney but instead I chose to focus closer.

Conclusion

Flowers can be a great subject for photography. You can experiment with your camera settings on a subject that does not move or have an opinion. They are great subjects for macro photography with plenty of details to focus on. They can add contrast and colour to otherwise drab landscape images. And they can be interesting finds when out exploring cities.

There are many photographers out there who have made flowers their primary focus, which can provide great inspiration to those of us that just dabble.

What’s you favourite way to capture flowers? Have I missed something? Let me know by commenting below!

This is a challenge so after reading through my examples and ideas, I want you to have a go and get some great images and have fun! The best examples I will include in a future article, with links to the creator’s social media/website. Show me what you can do by sending your photos to me at:

E-mail: info@drlphotography.co.uk

Disclaimer

All images shared with me will remain the property of the creator and will only be displayed with their permission. If you wish to use your own watermark to protect your images and show your brand, then please do. Anyone that has a go at the challenge and communicates with me, shall get a personal response and I hope we can discuss photography more. Your images will never be sold by me or anyone associated with this site. They are your images.

These photography challenges are about creating a community and inspiring creativity for you (my readers) and for myself. It is meant as a way of inspiring each other, critiquing each other and discussing new techniques and ideas.