Garden Photo-op: Up Close and Personal
Photography has been a part of gardening for over a century. Gertrude Jekyll, the great 19th cen
tury Arts & Crafts landscape designer, was an accomplished photographer who took pictures of all of her work. Flash forward to this week’s show: guest Alan Detrick, author of Macro Photography for Gardeners and Nature Lovers: The Essential Guide to Digital Techniques (Timber Press, 2008), shares tips and advice for shooting gardens with digital cameras and focuses on his passion for taking extreme close-ups of flowers and insects.
One of my favorite photos from the book is taken behind a Hibiscus flower.
Another one shows a bumblebee hard at work seeking nectar and pollinating a morning glory flower.
Putting a frame on part of the garden, in other words, looking through the view finder and lens of a camera is one way to confirm successes, but also notice flaws that might be invisible to your comfortably accustomed eye. Did you notice the hose was in the frame? The camera did, and so you can move it. It is almost like having a professional come in for a critique.
A digital camera may be an essential tool for:
documenting visits to private and public gardens,
noting plants of interest (and shooting their labels),
planning a new garden,
finding ways to improve your own creations,
renovating outdoor spaces,
recording your works of art.
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