Tag: Flowers

From Garden to Lens: Week 4 of Botanical Art

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The final week of my 30 day project From My Garden has come to a close. At the beginning, the project seemed feasible. Then, as I was getting more into the project, it became daunting. The restriction of making images only from plant life from my garden in late winter was not the best choice.

The image below is a multiple exposure processed in both LR and PS. One image is an intentional camera movement and the other is a traditional image. Both are of dried limelight hydrangeas in my front yard. The images were blended in PS using the difference mode.

We have had warmer than normal temperatures the last few weeks. My strawberry patch is already sending out new leaves. Have you ever looked close at strawberry plants new leaves? The bright green leaves and red hairy stems were eye catching. More so with the macro image below.

My limelight hydrangea are one of my favorite flowers to photograph in my garden. This winter they have held up well and given me many opportunities to photograph them. The trick was to photograph them in new and different ways. This next image is a single ICM processed in LR. The lime green and purple tones were brought out by adjusting the sliders in the calibration panel of the develop module.

We had bad weather on March 14th. Storms were coming with rain and high winds. Even the potential for tornadoes. After work, we had to batten down the hatches so to speak. Making an image was not possible. I did post the below image on the 15th as I had missed the day before. This image is of an allium that has already started to spout. This delicate sprout was eaten by the rabbit living in our back yard. It will be interesting to see if it is able to recover.

I have been watching my lilac tree closely as we have had some below freezing temperatures and snow in the middle of the above normal temperatures we have been experiencing. Making images of the same lilac buds has become a second project. I posted these buds in a previous post. As you can see, the bud on the top right has either succumbed to the cold temperatures or has been eaten. I was excited to see the leaves below sprouting and a new lilac bud beginning to emerge. Since this image was made, we have had more snow and below freezing temperatures. I’m not sure if my lilacs will survive having sprouted too early and more below freezing temperatures are expected.

This past Sunday, I awoke to snow covering our front and back yards. This next image is of my Naked Ladies aka Surprise Lilies that have already sprouted and are three or four inches tall already. The green leaves, snow and a few dried oak leaves caught my attention. Not only the color, but all the different textures.

This is the first year to see my Pink Lady Apple tree bud out. I first planted a Pink Lady Apple tree in the fall of 2023. It did not survive that next winter. Fortunately, there was a one year guarantee and the nursery replaced the tree last spring. Knowing, my first tree did not survive, I was anxious to see if the replacement would survive. Fortunately it has! There probably won’t be any blossoms until next year, but even if just one appears, I hope to make many images.

The finally image is of rhubarb that has started to sprout. I love all the creases in the leaves and the green and red colors. Again, we have more below freezing temperatures in the forecast, so hopefully I’ll have a good crop this year.

Now that the project is complete, I have been able to reflect on the challenges of such a restrictive project. While some of the images are certainly more documentary than artistic, the project wasn’t about making artistic images for 30 days. Some may say, what was she thinking showing such documentary images? And that’s okay. The project was about picking up my camera each day and noticing all the potential images that could be made in my own garden.

The project certainly made me look close at my garden. Finding plant life each day made me realize how much was happening in my garden. While my garden is many shades of brown, it is also made of many textures. Both I would not have noticed without this project. Some days were overcast and some were full sunshine. If you’re not a photographer, have you noticed how the different light changes the look of your garden? The light is also changing with the season, changing from winter to spring. And then daylight savings time also came into play. Some of the images are of the same plants, but with different light they look different.

Some images are certainly more artistic than others. Recently, I attended an online photography conference through Out of Chicago. Using some of the styles of photography presented during the conference, as well as post processing techniques I learned, were used to make some of the images in this project. It was fun to practice some of the techniques. Some of the images were successful and some are just okay at best.

Do I consider this project a success? Absolutely! It forces me to pick up my camera each day and be creative. Something I haven’t done enough of the last few years. I look forward to see how my garden changes the next several months. I typically have something blooming in my yard from April through September. However, last year I had cosmos, zinnias, purple coneflowers and black eyed susan’s still blooming in November. If you missed that post, you can read it here.

If you have been reading my posts on this project, I hope you have enjoyed seeing how many different images were made all from plant life in my garden. If this is the first post you have read, you can select the previous posts below this one.

Until next time, I hope you get outside and look at what is happening in your garden!

From Garden to Lens: 30 Days of Botanical Art

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Recently, I attended Out of Chicago Live 2025 and it was an amazing conference. During the conference I was inspired by many photographers. One in particular, was Mary Jo Hoffman, author of Still, a beautiful book of her images and six essays. You can find her work on Instagram and on her blog Still. During one of her presentations, Ask Me Anything About Flat Lay Photography, she encouraged another participant to come up with a plan for a 30-day project. She then suggested to make it a 100-day project. My trying to come up with a project for 100 days when spring is just around the corner, failure was sure to ensue. Why? One of my passions is gardening and spring is a very busy time getting all the beds cleaned and ready for planting. A 30 day project seemed feasible. What could be my project? From My Garden, is my 30 day project. All images will be made with plant material from my garden.

Last week was my first week of this project. Only one image was made outside as the temperatures were bitter cold. The windchill at times was -25 degrees Fahrenheit. Even with all of my winter gear, it was too cold. My camera battery would not last long and the wind was too much of a challenge as well.

It was time to practice flat lay photography that Mary Jo had presented. She uses a white background and I didn’t want to copy her style. All of the plant material in my yard is definitely spent. A piece of barn wood quickly came to mind. It was from one of the barns where my grandpa farmed in the 1960’s. In 2004 several pieces were taken back with me to Phoenix. Then in 2015 when we moved to Iowa, the barn wood came home with me. For years, I have been undecided on what to do with these pieces. Now, was the perfect opportunity to make use of one of the boards.

Shooting inside had challenges too. One being I do not own any studio lights. Therefore, I had to work quick when coming home from work using natural light, a diffuser and a reflector. Fortunately, there is a large south facing window in my living room. The very late afternoon sun was quite bright and warm. A large diffuser was used to even and soften the light. Even so, there were still shadows and using a reflector solved that issue.

The first image is of dried black-eyed susan flowers that were still showing color in their petals. I was taken by surprise when I spied them outside of my kitchen window. I knew they should be cut and brought indoors to be photographed.

The next day was the only image made outside. My flower and perennial beds do not get cleaned out in the fall. I leave everything for the pollinators to hibernate, not to mention all of the natural bird seed for the birds that do not fly south. This next image is of Giant Benary Zinnias that were planted in a raised bed near all of my vegetable raised beds. I plant flowers right along side my vegetables to both attract pollinators and also to help with pest control.

Back inside, this next image was made in my living room using natural light and a diffuser. I gathered several pieces of plant material from different flowers. The black-eyed susan’s were used again. The orange marigolds were found in a terracotta pot that had been moved into our garage for the winter. Again, finding this much color was a surprise. In the same pot were a few stems of petunias with a couple still showing some green color. The two seed heads on long stems are also black-eyed susan’s. Along the bottom are cedar berries that had been gathered from a neighbor’s property next to my aunt and uncle’s farm. The cedar branches with the beautiful blue berries were used for outdoor Christmas decor. Do you still have this much color in your yard?

The blue cedar berries looked like tiny blueberries. They deserved to have a portrait made. Each day I had to come up with a composition and then work quickly before the light was gone. This 30 day challenge, from my garden, is just that.

In the spring of 2016, my first garden was planted here in Southeast Iowa. During late winter and early spring I started several vegetables and herbs. One of the herbs was oregano. At the time, I thought oregano was an annual. Yet, it has come back year after year! Each year it is bigger than the last. Last year, I dug some up and gave it to a friend for her garden. If not trimmed regularly it will flower. The flowers are loved by the bees! The dried oregano flowers would be my next plant material to photograph. The sun was quite low and casting a warm light on a small part of the flowers even with a diffuser. Using a silver reflector, a more even warm light was cast over the flowers. That’s right, a silver diffuser was used not a gold or a silver/gold reflector.

I found two hydrangea flowers while foraging for plant material. They had broken off in the wind and were lying in my perennial flower bed. One had been smashed on one side, so that one was tossed aside. It will be composted in the spring. The other dried flower had a pretty triangle shape and was not tattered. This is not the same flower that was photographed covered in snow.

The last image for the week is of Giant Benary Zinnia seed heads. I braved the cold to snip a few stems that were left in my garden. One was so large it had bent over from the weight of the seeds. The middle stem had lost most of its seeds, but left an interesting shape. The seed head on the far right was quite a bit smaller. It was possibly from a flower late in the season. I loved that a few leaves remained. Each stem unique and interesting in it’s own way.

I hope you follow along to see all the images that will be made with plant material from my garden!