Joel Heffner, writer and photographer, belongs to the Annadale Garden Club (of the First District Federated Garden Clubs of New York State, Inc.)
Preserving your garden memories in photographs is a great way to extend the growing season indefinitely. Here are some basic tips for improving your garden photos.
The Boy Scouts' motto, "Be Prepared," certainly applies to gardening photography. It's important to be ready to capture the moment when your flowers are perfect, so always have your camera handy and know how to use it. It might be a good idea to get out that old manual and look it over on a rainy day.
Be sure to have fresh batteries in the camera, and have film or digital cards at the ready, depending on the type camera you are using. A small notebook and pencil will come in handy for recording conditions, so you can learn from both what you did right and wrong.
Before you start shooting, adjust the camera. Setting the "speed" is a good idea. Most digital cameras have settings from 50 to about 1600. If you know there will be a lot of light on a sunny day, a lower speed will be better. For shooting in very dim light, use the highest speed, because it will make the camera more sensitive to light.
Cameras have two basic controls: shutter speed and aperture. The shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter actually will be opened when you take the picture. The brighter the scene, the higher it can be. Higher shutter speeds also are helpful if you are shooting on a windy day, so flowers or leaves don't come out fuzzy and out of focus.
If your shutter speed is too long, more than about 1/30th of a second, camera movement becomes a problem, which is why potographers who shoot flowers often use a tripod to help steady the camera.
The aperture is the amount of light that is allowed to come through the lens and is measured in what we call f/stops. Cameras can have apertures ranging from about f/2.8 to f/22. The lower the number, the more light comes into the lens. On cloudy days, you will need to allow more light to come into the camera or allow the shutter to be open for a longer period of time. That's how shutter speed and aperture work together. Setting your camera to an automatic setting helps solve the problem, so you don't have to think about it.
Once your camera is ready, you need the right conditions. Usually, a cloudy day is the best for taking pictures outdoors. If the sun is out, look for a shady area; bright sun causes very harsh shadows. Early morning or late afternoon is much better than noon because the light is much softer.
If you must shoot when the sun is out, use a reflector or diffuser. The former is used to fill in light in the shadows. It goes on the side where you see the shadow and helps soften the light. A diffuser is used between the sun and plants to soften the harsh light that goes through it to create a more pleasing appearance. You can even use a white garbage bag or a piece of white paper for this purpose.
FILL THE FRAME
When taking pictures of flowers, it's a good idea to try to get the entire frame filled with flowers. Either move yourself closer or use the telephoto feature on your camera to get in for a tight shot. It's the same as taking pictures of people: You want to see their faces. In the garden, you want to see the pretty flowers.
Most people take garden pictures by aiming the camera downward, because it's easier than bending down or crawling in the dirt. The problem is our eye level may not be the best angle from which to take a photo. Try to move around and look for interesting angles -- front, back, side, top and bottom views.
Another important factor to consider is the background. If it's too busy, the viewer becomes distracted, so try to keep it as simple as possible. If you can show a flower with green leaves behind it, that's usually what shows up best.
The last and probably most important thing to remember is to preserve your photos. Although today's digital cameras make it easy to shoot dozens of pictures at a time, we seldom actually make prints of all of them. Transfer them onto your computer; put them on an external hard drive and/or make a CD as a backup, or upload the images onto an online site like Flickr (www.flickr.com) to store so that even if something happens to your computer, the pictures will be preserved. Consider creating your own Web site to show off your best work. You might want to visit Picnik (www.picnik.com) where you can enhance (retouch) your photos for free.
Your best photos deserve to be enlarged and displayed in your house. Before you know it, winter will be back and this year's garden just a memory. Your photos not only will remind you of great moments in the garden, but get you thinking about how next year's will be even better.
The First District Federated Garden Clubs of New York State will have a photo contest open to the public as part of its flower show on June 7th and 8th at the Greenbelt Center on Brielle Avenue, Sea View. Enter any black-and-white or color plant-related 8-by-10 photograph, in an 11-by-14 mount, to be staged on a blue-gray bulletin board. Nothing should be written on the face of the picture or mat; you may write your name on the back. Only one photo per exhibitor is allowed and the exhibitor must pre-register with Photography Chairman, Joel Heffner prior to May 9.
Photos must be brought to the Greenbelt Recreation Center on June 6, between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. or June 7 between 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m.
To pre-register and for additional information, contact Joel Heffner, at 718-966-7847.