When many beginners pick up a camera for the first time, it sort of seems like an automatic first step to begin photographing flowers. They stand still and do as they’re told while you practice. For some photographers, they begin feeling more comfortable with the camera and move from flora and fauna to people or other. Although for others, they really sharpen their talent and just get better and better at photographing flowers.

For those finding yourselves photographing flowers often, I offer a few of my tips:

Macro – for the ultra ultra beginner, this will be news to you: the macro setting on your camera (usually with a flower icon) is excellent for photographing things up close. Use this for flowers.

Think like a flower - If a flower is way down low on the ground then you should get down low on the ground, too. Photographing flowers isn’t just about documenting the fact that they once existed, if for only a day. It is about telling the flower’s story to immortalise it long after it has wilted. Take this photo for instance. This is a typical “oh that’s a nice patch of itsy bitsy daisies” photo:

But when I got down on my hands and knees and inspected each flower to find a little gem, I saw this single little lady with her petals sadly pointing downward while all the others were pointing up:

Relationships – The above photo also reminds me to tell you to photograph flowers within the context of their relationship to the other flowers. I purposefully took this photo with foreground blur and a wide open aperture to point out the fact that this sad little daisy was surrounded by other, happier, daisies. And I think this tells a story about a flower which is, undoubtedly by now, crushed entirely.

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