Scenes of Summer Gardens
Cameras Welcome

It's June and summer gardens still have lots of color. Days are running long. By July and August, summer flowers start looking a little tired. But there are still great subjects out there.

You might have to hunt a bit harder now so rev up your imagination for your summer photography .

	We're looking at the Great Lawn at VanDusen Botanical Garden. There are several curves and lines in this photo -- the path, the edge of the garden and the tall horizontal hedge. Your eyes follow the path to the middle left side of the picture.
	I made the wooden chair a diagonal line by tilting my camera. More lines - the orchid stem and flowers create a V-shape, starting at the lower right corner. The small cross bar on the chair completes the V in the bottom left corner.
	Niagara Falls, Canada - a garden lover's ideal travel destination. There are lots of lines and angles in this image. Many horizontal lines in the entrance and roof. The brick walk also has many lines. Angles are created by the smaller walkways.
	Same place as above but opposite direction. Good example of an S-curve. Two of them! The path makes one s-shape and the flower border makes another. S-curves draw the eye into and through the picture. Can you see one in the image above?
	Did you realize that Alaska has abundant gardens? Remember, summer has daylight around the clock. Early fall and late spring don't stop these lush blooms in Seward. Very pretty natural garden beside the cruise ship docks.

Its a good time to bring out your macro lens. Get on your knees, but make sure you have a tripod! Try a few variegated leaves or ferns. Peering through a macro in summer gardens opens up a world of tiny details. It'll blow your mind!

Outdoors, if there's a breeze, getting a sharp focus on your summer flowers is nearly impossible. It's not considered cheating if you resort to cut summer flowers inside, in a vase.

But I do have a marvellous “cheat” for holding a flower still when you're outdoors!

	Leaves are intriguing through a macro lens. I converted this color photo to black and white in Photoshop. This time I obeyed compositional rules - the Rule of Thirds. I put the curved portion of the leaf on the left side. It's best not to center your subject.
	Pretty colors and a repeating pattern. Nature has lots of them. You may not need a macro yet. Many lenses give you a sharp focus close-up to your subject. Read the instructions for your lens. What's the closest distance you can get?
	Raindrops are great to photograph. And a rainfall makes colors so rich. This is a close-up, I didn't use my macro here. The leaf has repetitive lines running along it's length and it forms a triangle. If you want color - look for a coleus leaf.
	Ferns are always interesting subjects. One of my future projects - take macro pictures of 50 species of ferns. There are about 12,000 so I'm okay there! The fern family is about 360 million years old - obviously a successful group of plants.

Decorative grasses are great subjects for pictures of summer gardens. Take your photo with the light falling on the side of the grass. A sidelight shows up the fine details and texture is your subject. Shoot in light cloud so there are no harsh shadows.	The popular Stargazer Lily. The mass of blooms forms a semi-cicle on top. The background is out-of-focus and the road forms a diagonal line. Bright white sky is minimal and some colorful grass leaves curve across to hide it. White skies aren't attractive!

Don't have a macro lens for your summer gardens? Then here's another idea -- give your planters some TLC and turn your camera on them.

My friends in Winnipeg have one of the most beautiful gardens. The stones make the pathway interesting and, again, the s-curve! The evening sky looks white, (it's too bright for the camera) so I used the tree and leaves to blot it out. White skies are boring!	Do you have planters in your garden? They need extra care but they're worth it. Hang them, move them, use them to decorate a patio party area. And use them when you want to take portraits. The world's just more colorful with planters. Lots of 'em!

And one more idea!

Admiring the hydrangeas in Stanley Park - August. The background's in focus, but now I wish I'd used a very shallow depth of field to make the background out of focus. See the orchid picture near the top to see what I mean. What do you think?

New photographers have so many things to think about! But here's a tip that's easy and gives some variety to your photography of summer gardens or summer flowers...

Take pictures in both horizontal and vertical view. Spend time examining them. Some scenes look better when you turn the camera sideways.

This light is absolutely super for a portrait. Bright but no shadows to deal with. We went out one summer evening and shot these at Queen Elizabeth Park in the garden. These evergreens make excellent backgrounds - they aren't too bright or distracting.	In portraits, catch that glint in the eyes! We call it a “catch-light”. The eyes are the window to the soul! So focus sharply on them - make those eyes sparkle. I chose a close-up but you could include much more of the summer flowers and gardens with your models.

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