In my second post on taking photos in the garden for readers who may like to try a different approach, I am concentrating on decorative aspects the images one might take – at home or beyond the garden gate. Jumping in at the deep end, hardest of all are subjects that move around; taking the peacock butterflies above was a moment of opportunity for my husband – and the quality using his professional Nikon shows.
I, on the other hand, was casting about for ‘demo’ shots – nothing special, but each illustrates a point. First my usual setting the scene ‘location’ shot which focuses my mind on where we were and why, and helps maybe months ahead when I come to write about a particular garden, or aspects thereof.
Always on the lookout for images that will translate into the collages, journals and textile books that I create, silhouetted plants – and particularly those of the Umbelliferae family, capture my imagination, and are also easy to replicate in stitch.
Whether against the sky, or the dark background of an evergreen shrub, Fennel has that delicate sufficiency that others might pass by. Whereas I prefer the first photo for its composition, this image better defines the plants structure for painting or embroidering.
Which brings me to architectural plants such as the artichoke, of which I must have taken dozens of images over the years. This ‘Purple Globe’ variety was not the usual giant of a plant, but by kneeling down and shooting upwards, the silhouette of the principle choke stood out against a paler out-of-focus background. A useful trick for something like this.
Focussing on just one plant meant that the rest of the photo was blurred; cropping what I wanted was the answer and I can now use the result in a number of ways, apart from illustrating what an artichoke looks like when I am actually talking about the veg garden and not creativity!
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This galvanized bucket I found at my grandmother’s farmhouse. She had these buried half way into the ground and filled them with sandy dirt.evergreen shrubs
What a good idea.