Flowers

Spring is a wonderful time to explore flower photography!  In the Carolinas there seem to be flowers blooming everywhere you look in the spring time.  I like to experiment when photographing flowers.

Last weekend, my friend, Lorraine Shannon, and I went to check out locations

for an upcoming workshop we will be offering.  We made sure that we had our cameras readily available for any opportunities to photograph along the way.  At one of our stops, we found a variety of irises in bloom.

Sometimes I like the way flower images look with just basic processing to bring out the highlights and shadows of the image like in the image above.

Other times I find that I like to apply filters to achieve a different look to my flower photography.  This image was made using a filter from Topaz Impression.  One of the reasons I chose to add a filter to this flower was because it was not as “perfect” as I would have liked it to have been.  The filter took away those imperfections.

While riding home from the mountains last weekend with my husband, Randy, we happened upon flowers growing on the side of the road.  I tried several different approaches to these flowers.  I started by simply taking straight images of the flowers.

The light was a little “hot” since it was midday without cloud cover, so I also tried many shots using multiple exposure.  The shot below was created in camera by blending nine exposures of the same scene.

When doing this type of photography, you need to take many shots as each time you will come up with something different.  You will also learn by changing what you are doing with the camera as  you take each picture.

Using one of the images I took at this field of flowers and Topaz Impression, I created the image I used as the featured image for this blog post.  I think it is my favorite from the flower images that I have taken in the last two weeks.

When all else fails, you can always improve your flower photography by adding a dog.  My dog, Maui, is always willing to be a model.

My final image was taken in my classroom.  One of my students gave me these beautiful flowers last week.  I was so touched.  We are studying living things and have caterpillars and ladybugs that we are observing in the classroom.  One of the ladybugs escaped its “habitat” and found this beautiful flower that it preferred.  Using a camera that I keep in my purse at all times, I took a picture of it.  Once home, I used Topaz Glow to get the look I wanted to achieve.

This spring, take a look at flowers that are blooming where you live and travel.  Take a close look and see what you can create!