Wild Flower Photography... Beautiful but Capricious!
We are in the middle of the spring season and it will soon be time to start planning our summer photography excursions! But you may ask: What should I focus on for my landscape photography during those beautiful months of spring and summer? I’d 100% recommend that you consider Flower Photography!
I am a huge fan of flowers. I actually have a big garden with almost 300 hundred different species and varieties of perennials and hardy bulbs and they all bloom simultaneously. I know them all very well! They are my little babies! I planned my garden in such a way that there would always be something blooming. When a particular plant is done for the season, a new one starts it’s magic colour show! My love for flowers runs so deep to knowing their preferred location in the garden wether they prefer shade or sun, whether they prefer dry soil or rich moist earth.
One of the things that I find so satisfying as a landscape photographer is seeing plants I cherish in my garden in their own natural habitat. And I have to admit that they create such an amazing impact as a foreground interest in landscape images. But there are a few things to consider:
ALL ABOUT THE PLANNING
Since I know most plants that grow in the Northern Hemisphere, I am a couple of steps ahead of those who don't know much about plants and flowers. Knowing what kind of flowers you are photographing will have a great impact on the planification of photoshoots. They simply don't bloom all at the same time.
Of course there will be some luck factor because from year to year, blooming season might differ a little. Maybe winter was mild and shorter, maybe the flowers started their season a bit earlier…but for the most part, they will bloom more or less at the same time each year. Also another factor to consider is elevation. As we go up into the alpines, we might find the same plants as at lower elevations but they will bloom a week or two later. Scouting is the key to success. You can also do digital scouting…what do I mean by this? In this era of rich internet data, we can find a lot of information about plants and flowers in general. You can also find out approximately when specific flowers bloomed based on metadata shared on social media or blog articles. Or you could go Old School and purchase a wild flower guide for the area you are visiting!
BEWARE OF DANGEROUS PLANTS
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, knowing what you are photographing will be very important. Some wild plants can be severely irritating for your skin and some can cause some pretty dangerous burns.
There actually is one plant I can think of that can be found more and more in some parts of Canada…a beautiful plant called Giant Hogweed. She is one tall plant, up to 2 meters, with very exotic leaves and umbrella shaped white flowers positioned at the top of their very long stems…as beautiful as she is, if you touch the plant, she will burn your skin badly! And in the same family of plants, there is also the Cow Parsnip which is shorter but has very similarly looking white umbrella flowers. One way to quickly identify them is that the Giant Hogweed has red markings on the stem. If you aren't well educated and can’t tell the difference between the two of them, you will get hurt!
WATCH OUT FOR UNDESIRABLES
Spending time in nature is truly rejuvenating. I seriously feel in my element when I am outside with my camera. I just love enjoying the colours, the smells, the noises, the fresh breezes… It's always important to watch out for undesirable living things, as big or as small as they might be! Be aware that some insects can cause a serious problem. Ticks are more and more present in the Northern Hemisphere and sadly, these little suckers don’t have any real enemies…some birds will enjoy the crunch and the proteins they have to offer but other than birds, ticks have nothing to worry about.
You should always be prepared, spray yourself with bug repellent, use a themacell, wear long sleeve pants with socks on top of them. When you finish hiking, always do a visual inspection of your clothes, screen your skin carefully to make sure you didn’t carry a couple of them little thicks with you. You don’t want to be bitten by a thick…some of them are carrying Lime Disease and if you happen to catch it, it’s one bad disease to deal with.
Sometimes, undesirables could be animals...most animals are harmless and simply won't mind your presence at all. But in some cases, you might want to have a friend serve as a spotter while you are capturing images. And when you are done capturing images, you can take your turn spotting while your friend is capturing his/her images. Bears could be roaming around and it's very important to keep an eye on them. Bear encounters are for the most part always going to be peaceful experiences but you always want to be "ready" in case things don't go according to the plans. And for that reason, you should always carry Bear Spray.
ENJOY WITH YOUR EYES ONLY
How may times do I see people pick flowers and bring them home? How many times have I witnessed some people trying to take some wild flowers and bring them home? All of this is so wrong! As pretty and amazing as those flowers are, please leave them in their natural habitat. A lady once told me: It’s just a couple flowers… True, but what if ten thousand tourists do the same and carry plants or flowers back home, now we have a serious problem! Right? Some plants could potentially become endangered or even extinct…
Also, carrying plants, roots, seeds or any other parts of plants home could potentially spread undesirable seeds, disease or insects into your beloved green space. Enjoy the plants in their natural habitat…enjoy with your eyes only! And with your camera…
COMPLIMENTING AND OPPOSED COLOURS
As far as composition goes, there is nothing like complimenting or opposed colours. Beautiful yellow flowers will work so nicely with a bright sky since yellow and blue are opposed colours in the light spectrum. In the image below, I was super happy to take advantage of magenta and green which are two opposite colours. I think together they are telling a great story!
You should also always try to compose in such a way that you will have repetitive elements in your compositions. Once again in the image below, I have multiple patches of magenta in the scene. These will play a great role at telling an amazing story and bringing my viewers’ eyes from one patch to the next into the image until they reach the main subject
FOCUS STACKING STRUGGLES
I am not going to lie, flower photography will for the most part mean focus stacking struggles. Flowers are probably the hardest subject to focus stack. But if you plan on capturing flower images on a windy day, I’d say you are literally asking for even more trouble. You have to make sure that flowers aren’t moving not even a little. The more they move, the more manual corrections will be needed in post production so everything looks perfect!
You will also very likely have to deal with ghosting effects around your flowers in the foreground. That ghosting effect will need to be taken care of manually by locally cloning some blurry areas out. Prepare to curse, prepare to sweat, take multiple breaks when things aren’t working but in the end, the results will be absolutely mind blowing!
And speaking of Focus Stacking, I did post a whole article about this topic. You should have a look if you have no clue how to do this technique in Photoshop. My article is very straight forward and I also included a bunch of screen shots making it even easier to follow all the steps…you should read The Art Of Focus Stacking for more details.
…IN CONCLUSION
As mentioned in this Blog Article, preparation, scouting and knowing your subject will all be the key to success just like any other subject you may capture as a landscape photographer in general. Among all subjects I capture as a landscape photographer, flowers are probably the most difficult ones to capture successfully but also the most rewarding ones! Practice, practice and practice….and I am sure you will unlock a new passion in your daily/weekly landscape photography adventures!
