Taking photos of flowers seems like it should be easy.  After all, don’t you just drive along the road, stop when you see a pretty scene, and get out and shoot?  Well…..yes…. driving along and noticing pretty scenes is certainly what gets you there.  When flowers are this prolific, though, getting a shot that has interest and dynamic qualities takes some observation.

Look at this scene for a minute.  What do you notice?  Here’s what I saw.  The contrast of yellow flowers against the white salty field and  blue shadows on the hills certainly makes the flowers stand out.  Still, though, as a sea of flowers, they looked flat and uninteresting.  I could see a few curves in the floral landscape, but nothing strong enough to stand out.  I could tell if we drove down the road to look for angles in the pattern of flowers, I was going to lose the light and the shot.  I studied this scene for a while before I saw the one yellow flower sticking up above all the rest, standing out against the white background.  That lone flower added the dynamic quality and interest I wanted.  That was the shot that told the story of the flowers.

Along with a few hundred other people that spring, my husband and I went on a wildflower search. We were doing roadside photography to get an overview of the Park, and weren’t walking on any trails for our views.

No flower shot is simple, but this one was especially challenging.  These are tiny white flowers that grow close to the ground.  We had been photographing the flowers spread across the valley in front of the hills when I spotted them.  I tried several ways to photograph them, but they were too tiny to stand out against the brown hills.  Finally, I decided to see if I could position myself close enough to create a line of flowers against the blue sky in the background.  I set the camera for landscape shots, laid down on a blanket I had spread in front of the flowers, and tipped my camera up until the hills in the background were spread along the bottom of the frame and the flowers were positioned against the blue sky.  Lines create a sense of motion, and angled lines create the strongest sense of action.  I wanted an angled line of flowers against the blue sky to bring out the delicate flowers and create a strong sense of action. 

When you are looking for strong nature shots, looks for lines and angles.  If you can’t find them, position yourself so you create them.