Well the lockdown has given an excuse to potter in the garden, and there is certainly plenty out there to keep me occupied. There’s weeding to be done and shrubs to be cleared. That said, there are also lots of flowers to be photographed, which has given me the opportunity to develop this aspect of my photography. Most of these were taken with a macro lens, or the long end of my 100-400 zoom. And I got down low to take them, occasionally using a tripod and remote trigger for the very small close-up shots. They were all photographed in natural light.
I shot this in strong light, but deliberately under-exposed to kill the background. There was a small amount of tidying up needed in processing (stray leaves and bits of light on the ground), but less work than you might expect. It’s fairly typical of a lot of my photography, with the background providing a strong contrast to the subject.
Our ‘lawn’ is more like a meadow, part of the problem (or benefit) of being on the South Downs. I do like the buttercups and daisies though.
This tiny flower is Herb Robert, which has sprung up all over the place. It’s very pretty, but quite invasive, but it adds a nice splash of colour.
These have also seeded themselves. The grape hyacinth is dying back now, but was everywhere in late March. Same with the anenomes, which have now faded.
The cornflowers are steadfastly appearing everywhere but the flower beds. They are pretty and I had a bit of fun with processing the second shot with a textured background for a more ‘artistic’ feel! Maybe a touch of lockdown fever got to me, but I’ve been learning a lot about processing during the past few weeks courtesy of Foto-Buzz, the photographic learning community run by Andrew James and Jon Adams.
The final shot for the moment is another plant that has ‘taken over’ – a very pretty cyclamen coum. And as with the first photo I’ve made use of the strong light and under-exposed to get the dark background.
Darko
10 May 2020A good photographer always finds an inspiration. Living in a city makes me missing a garden or a back yard of my own. Luckily, there are mountains nearby 🙂
For some reason I didn’t get the notification for this post in my inbox.
Words
11 May 2020That’s because I’m an idiot and didn’t remember to send an email! The garden is the saving grace at the moment and a haven for wild flowers that seem to have taken over.