I absolutely love fresh flowers- they make my day- and bring me energy- All winter I display them in my home and when summer arrives I still can’t get enough!   I soak up the images in my mind but can’t resist an opportunity to capture them forever with my camera.  And what better place than the garden of all gardens- Butchart Gardens.  We are really blessed to live so close to this floral beauty that I am compelled to have a seasons pass to encourage regular visits all year- Most guests of the gardens take planes, trains and automobiles to get there and I only need my shoes to walk me there!  I live so close, I can see their fireworks on Saturday evening!  So with a passion for blooms, especially June blooms, I made my photographic visit.

But snap happy, that was me- 1 miiiiiiillllllion photos later- I couldn’t help myself.  But all along, as I was photographing, I had numerous thoughts as to what I would do with the images which had me taking even more shots!  With todays digital technology it’s absolutely limitless as to what you can create with some excellent photos.  I thought I would share some of my shots on flicker for you to download in case you have a project in mind that these might work for.  I am happy to make them available for you and hope you receive the joy by sharing them or surrounding yourself with some of the images in your own home, even if it’s just a new summer screen saver for your computer which would be lovely!

As I walked thru the June gardens at Butchart Gardens I became more and more obsessed with taking close up shots of textures and bunches of blooms – I’ve been collecting textural images for a few years now- maybe one day I’ll print a book of these images as an inspiration for colours, shapes, and the flavour of environment thru texture.

The more I took, the more I imagined the plethora of uses for these shots – as cards, enlargements, framed in groups as photo walls, wrapped photo canvases, blog images of course, sharing on flicker, grouped as art collages, a bound custom colour photo album, photoshop artistic alterations to these images, colour themed inspiration, and plainly for their exquisite beauty.  I pretended to be Karsh, taking photos from obscure angles up to the sky to take in the beautiful blue in contrast with the botanicals, zooming in on the insects, cropping close to blooms, capturing masses of blooms, and playing with the light.  And to tell you the truth as lovely as my images turned out, I am no expert- I have only taken grade 12 photography and I have a digital SLR (single lens reflex) camera with a wide angle lens and that’s it.  So you too can take lovely shots even with a simple digital camera- the beauty now a days is if the shot looks wrong you know instantly by being able to view your shot-vs having to wait for the lab to develop it.  This is amazing to me as it allows me to instantly try different settings to brighten or darken the shot by adjusting the aperture of the lens and re-shoot the image.  This saves much disappointment upon returning home as you off load your images to your computer.

My recommendations for a successful day photographing your favourite places;

- only take others with you that are also passionate about capturing the beauty- ie invite a fellow photographer, or you will forever be pressured to hurry your shots if your companion isn’t on the same page!  That’s what I did- I took my sister who actually took more photos than I did! and I thought I took a lot!  We also shared ideas of what we thought were good angles, lighting, settings etc.-have an extra battery with you fully charged up in case you burn your first one out- nothing more disappointing that a dead battery-It’s put me in a cranky mood before:(                                                                                                                                                                                                                             -take an extra memory card for your camera in case you reach your cards full quota-if not you will find yourself trying to delete images that you should really view full size for detail and you may lose some good shots for the sake of making room for more.
-leave all unnecessary items behind in the car and have your hands free so you can be really be creative without cumbersome baggage.
-an overcast day with thin cloud cover is ideal for shots and provides even lighting as a full sun day creates very contrasty shots leaving you with very bright image areas with dark shadows that can be tricky to brighten up on your computer-
-avoid shooting into the sun- have the sun at your back and you will end up with much better shots and better lighting.

Once you arrive home be sure to off load your images.  Sort thru the images and remove any that are not successful images. Then make back up copies of them on a labeled disk or thumb drive for future reference and safe keeping.  These steps will avoid disappointment and keep you organized. Then create an on line link for sharing- there are many- facebook is popular for viewing and a flicker account if you wish to share them as downloads.

A lovely website I found for turning some of your shots into unique art for your home is this silhouette site- I am in love with what she does- It’s dead easy too as you just email your images and choose your style and she does the rest and then sends  you the final image- they are affordable and irresistible and make fab gifts for grandparents, or just great images in your home.  I have always loved silhouettes but my images of my kids have come from the scissor cutting gals on main street in Disneyland!  This is a whole lot easier than getting to Anaheim!

Another fun idea is to enter your shots into a contest if you have some real unique favourites.  National Geographic often has a contest and so do the photographic magazines- google photo contests and you’ll be amazed where you can enter- even the Saanich Fair has an array of categories that you can enter!  Maybe we should have a contest?  Hmmm, will have to give this some thought!

I hope you enjoy the shots!  And perhaps I have inspired you to get your camera out and photograph your own garden, your neighbors, head to Butchart Gardens or another local community garden for free!  I would love to hear your thoughts on your favourite places to photograph. Maybe you can even set up a flicker page for some of your favourite shots and leave the link in our comments below so we can all check out your favourite snap shots!! I hope you get snap happy!  Ps. kids love Butchart’s too, and they are adorable to photograph- take a peek at the shots of my 3 yr old Amelia and my 8 yr old niece Alysha- soo0000 cute in matching dresses!