As I wrote about in my last post, we have recently redone the garden with the addition of a wildlife pond amongst other exciting new areas! As I had hoped this has provided lots of great new photo opportunities, which I have started to make the most of with a few photo-shoots over the last week or so.
I have to say it was really difficult to know where to start with the garden as there's so many great new things to photograph! It's like a pick and mix! I think in those situations there's a danger that you get so bogged down with where to start that you miss out. Especially when plants can go over so quickly! However there's always next year at least. Anyway I did eventually make a start by basically choosing which plants were at their best at the time.
For my first shoot I mainly focused on roses and foxgloves with a happy accidental image of a fern, which probably ended up one of the best photos! I also thought it was about time I got my macro lens out and that is what I mainly used for both shoots. One issue I had that can be a problem with very bright sunny weather , as nice as it is, is over-exposed images created by too much glare. The way I overcame this, although there are others ways too, was to shoot in the evening with less full sun. Not only is the light easier to work with, but it's arguably more beautiful anyway! As I already mentioned you have to make the most of your opportunities and the poppies I photographed definitely proved this as the petals literally fell off an hour after I had finished!
For the second shoot I moved to the pond, which has been so much fun to watch as it changes and has established over the last few months. Since my last post we have had at least two sorts of damselfly and a dragonfly laying eggs in the pond and the tadpoles have now turned into frogs! Unfortunately we weren't there to see them hop out, but still great to watch them change. For this shoot I saw the opportunity quite a while ago and I very nearly missed out! In the pond we have has a plant called a Water Hawthorne, which is a little bit like a Waterlily with long thin floating leaves. The flowers created some beautiful reflections that I just had to use and I actually spent most of the day on this one image! Sometimes it really pays to be patient as I eventually got the shot I was after.
Yesterday morning, with a little persuasion, I took advantage of the great lightning and it proved to be a good move. The light through the ferns and all the leaves was really beautiful! It was great to get in really close with the macro lens and see all the little details of the veins on the leaves and the bright red cherries! I also had another go at the poppies as there was a whole new lot of flowers and with much better results.
Now I have finished my composition, which was played at the concert this week, I am starting to concentrate on my upcoming exhibition in September. The concert went really well incidentally! I'm now at stage of putting together all the photos I need ready for September 29th, which is the fun bit! You may be seeing some of the images from these shoots and many more at my next exhibition in a few months time.