Flower Photography
It has been a while since I have last posted any pictures besides the pictures for the title cards and some pictures from the trip to Hamburg. To be honest, it is better than nothing but I would still want a platform to present the photos I took.
After reviewing all of the pictures I have taken along the way of life, I have figured that the best pictures are not always taken with a camera. I mean, don’t get me wrong, camera photos can be amazing but smartphones are also good.
Some gorgeous pictures are taken with a simple smartphone camera. To be honest, sometimes I prefer the smartphone camera since the pictures could easily be edited within seconds after taking the picture.
This time I wanted to share the pictures of some flowers I took over the years. Spring season is my favourite season for a reason after all. During spring, the lighting and the objective just go along so well together. It would have been a shame not to take a picture of nature’s beauty.
Now you probably could ask why I love to take pictures of flowers and the truth being that I have no idea. It has been like this since I was a child. Whenever I had a camera in my hand, the first thing I would look for to photograph are plants, more specifically flowers.
In the pictures I took, it might not be all too obvious but when I was a child with a camera, I had the unexplainable habit of taking pictures of three flowers. Not two not four. It was always three. The pattern extended to other objects too but mostly flowers.
My mother found it hilariously interesting that I only took pictures of flowers when there were only three in any picture found. And now looking back, I couldn’t explain my actions. It might have been something about the comfort of three.
Nevertheless, enough about my history with flower photography. Let´s get to the pictures of the flowers themselves. And unlike many times before, this collection spans a long period of time and has a theme, so no outliers this time.
All the pictures are ordered chronologically since I was curious as to how my photography has changed over the span of five years (oh my… it has been such a long time). And all pictures are taken with my smartphone.
The first picture was taken in the Netherlands in the famous Keukenhof famous for its tulips during the springtime. Even on their website, they like to claim that they have “The most beautiful spring garden in the world!” so I don’t think it would be an understatement to say it was more than beautiful.
Unlikely for me at that time, we went to Keukenhof in late spring when the flowers already started to wilt a bit but considering that I took many photos of amazingly arranged flower patches, I would say that the time you go doesn’t matter as long as you do visit Keukenhof during the springtime.
But enough about the garden, let´s talk about the picture. To be honest, there isn’t much to say about this image. I personally did not quite like this picture since the perspective is all wrong. It is not a bad image, but it could have been better.
All I am saying is that the flowers in this image are too dark and out of focus. The sun in the image was delightful but as mentioned, there is so much room for potential luckily I was just at the start of my photography journey.
The story behind this image was that I went on a walk with my mother and some of her friends. Since her friends had children and I was an adult, the walking speed differed significantly, which meant I was always a few steps ahead, literally.
Since I had to wait for the little ones and I was bored in the meantime, I just took pictures of the surroundings. Luckily, there were flowers nearby and I could take pictures to my heart's content. And I just found the perspective of a single flower as the image centre interesting.
Due to the fact that I am a rather curious person, I tried out taking a picture with the flower as the only centre point of the image. However, due to the bright and sunny day, some parts of the flower were brighter than the rest.
This contrast difference just made the image a bit hard to look at since there is such a bright spot right in the middle surrounded by not-so-bright petals. Nevertheless, the flower is in focus which is a plus.
I believe that this picture is the only outlier in this collection since this is the only picture taken with my camera. Nevertheless, I have kept this image in the collection since at the very least it fits the theme of this collection perfectly fine.
For me to be able to take this image, I had to hike through mountains and valleys. Okay… I must admit that this is not as dramatic as I made it out to be since we did go on a hike through mountains and valleys, but it was all part of a hiking route which made it alright.
If I hadn’t noticed this peculiar-looking plant and stopped to examine it, I would have missed this plant completely. However, I was glad I did because this plant just looks so exotic and amazing with its flowers in flowers.
Somehow, in
my opinion, the insects pollinating the plant just made the picture oh-so
better. Nevertheless, it was a dark day that day which makes the image a bit
darker than hoped for but I like this image nonetheless.
I must confess that I already posted pictures of cherry blossom-like flowers from my parent's garden about some time ago but it has already been a year so leave me be. And I am a sucker for cherry blossom-like flowers.
There is no interesting story behind this image, it was just a sunny day in the middle of spring, and I was home taking a break. When I looked out the window, I just saw amazing-looking flowers and I just thought to myself, I need a picture of that.
Besides that, I found it interesting that the flowers are currently being turned into the places the apples grow. I mean, sadly, the flowers have to wilt for it but I guess that is just the cycle of life and the whole cycle repeats.
The only thing that annoys me with this image is how the shadows are. Since the flowers now look a tad dark. If the sun was shining upon it, it would have highlighted the amazing flower with all its colourful features.
I am also sad that there weren’t many flowers on that apple tree, but I guess that is just the way it goes with nature photography. You can´t control the elements of nature and should just enjoy nature as it is.
These roses are the roses I got my grandmother for her birthday since I know she loves her roses. And judging by her reaction, I would like to assume that she likes those roses a lot.
Sadly, there weren’t many flowers on the plant, but it was enough to bring a smile to her face and that is at the end of the day the only thing that matters. There is nothing better than making someone you love and care about smile by doing the simplest things.
I also know that the plant is also in good hands since my grandmother has a green thumb. To a certain extent, I needed one too since I needed to take care of the plant before it can be gifted to my grandmother, and I can say it survived long enough to be gifted so I take that as a win.
Don´t get me wrong. The rose plant did lose some roses in my care since I wasn´t about to let perfectly good flowers wilt and I wasn´t about to gift wilted flowers. So, I cut off the roses and dried them so I could gift the dried roses as part of a birthday card.
In all honesty, I can´t find anything to say about this image besides that there weren´t many flowers for me to take pictures of. Otherwise, the lighting and the focus of the image both seem fine. I mean there is always room for improvement but for now, I have got nothing to say.
The funny story about this picture is that this was totally unplanned. I was standing at the bus stop, and I looked behind me to see really adorable white flowers behind me smelling just like how I imagined spring would smell if it had a smell.
It did take a few tries since the sun was directly in front of me and it was hard to find an angle where the sun wasn’t all up in my face. However, I got the picture I wanted just in time before the bus came.
What I love about this image is just how the flowers in the front are sharp in focus and the flowers and everything else are just unfocused in the background. I just like that contrast between focused and unfocused.
The sun in this image perfectly highlights some flowers but sadly not all. What I do find annoying is the light pole and the fence in the background since I wanted a more natural look but nature in a city is also really pretty sometimes.
Just like the picture before this, this picture is completely unplanned. I was in my boyfriend´s garden while he was grilling and I just found this amazing plant beside the plant which had the most adorable little pink flowers.
The sun was right behind me which highlighted the tiny little flowers perfectly. And the leaves of the plant just perfectly contrasted with the flowers. To be honest, I just love exotic-looking plants.
With this
image, I am just annoyed that the background is slightly pixelated. I have no
idea why but that just happens far too frequently. This slight mishap just makes
the image look weird and I am not the biggest fan of it.
This image is nothing all too special but I just love the colour combination of the flowers. The truth is that I just can´t resist taking a picture of the pretty colourful flowers I see in front of me.
I saw all these beautiful flowers on a botanical garden date with my boyfriend. The university botanical garden is just a great place to be when stressed from all the uni work and need a break from reality. They have a collection of amazing plants from all over the world. It is just a peaceful place right next to the campus.
Since I have a soft spot for magnificent, colourful flowers, I only took pictures of those. But there were many other plants which looked quite fascinating nevertheless, I wasn´t sure how to make green stand out of green so I let it be.
For the most part, I am rather pleased with the results but I am not too happy with the dark clouds and the blossoms which didn’t bloom. I can just imagine how the final picture would look if all flowers are in full bloom.
I can confidently say that I would continue my quest to find and capture the most alluring flowers in photos in the future. Since photography is just fun and having a collection of stunning flowers in your gallery has a tranquil effect on me for an unexplainable reason.
From the images above I can also confidently say that I have improved over the years. Back then I didn’t find the right angle and just took the image however I wanted without considering the environment.
Nevertheless, the objective of the image just became clearer and the environment is focused on making the objective, in this case, the flowers, stand out more. With the lighting and the position of the camera.
The only thing that was consistent on my flower photography journey was that I always seem to have missed the right time to take a picture. The season wasn’t right. The weather was off. The flowers weren’t in full bloom. All the aspects I can´t control.
However, I tried to make the best of the situation anyways which makes some images look great nonetheless. Just like art, photography is in the eye of the beholder and many could disagree with me but at least I am content with my work and that is enough for me.
All my pictures are available for download. Just follow the link below:
https://pixabay.com/users/aureliajh-18994837/
More pictures will come soon.