Kew Gardens - International Garden Photographer of the Year

I visited Kew Gardens to view the exhibition last week on a day of rather unsettled weather. The photographs are presented as weatherproof panels arranged on curving screens outside in a small area of the gardens. Whilst the panels are impervious to the rain, a covering of rain drops on the plastic surface does obscure some of the details and textures.

As well as an overall winner, there are category prizes for "Plant portraits", "Garden views", "Wildlife in the Garden", "People in the Garden", "The Edible Garden" and "Trees". There are also prizes for young photographers.

In the Plant Portraits, there were two photographs that seemed interesting in terms of their composition:

Lotus by Nikki de Gruchi: The viewpoint is directly above a lotus pond looking down. The main visual element in the photograph is a large lotus leaf with two smaller leaves overlapping it on two sides. The leaves are in the right hand side of a horizontal frame and the left had side and background around the leaves are almost totally black. The unsymmetrical position in the frame adds vitality and contrast to a highly symmetrical subject.

Polytrichum Mounds by Andy Latham: The dome shaped mounds of moss stand out due to backlighting. In this photograph, a random array of shapes are made to look ordered by symmetrically placing a small group of the mounds in the foreground and a larger group in the middle ground of the frame. There are narrow sinuous tree trunks mainly in the background with just one in the foreground. I assume that the photographer would have needed to use a graduated neutral density filter or digital technique to keep an equilibrium between the bright background and darker foreground.

In the Garden Views section, the three photographs by Marianne Marjerus really stood out for me.

"A moment captured" was overall winner for the year. A layered landscape with sunlight streaming diagonally into the left side of the frame, with a group of plants leaning diagonally to the right in the right centre of the frame.

"Stipa gigantica....." is another photograph with absolutely beautiful lighting. Sunlight is catching some golden fronds of one plant which appear as diagonal waves against a dark background. The vertical trunks of light coloured bark form appear like columns across the frame in muted tones.

"Morning light" is a photograph of flower bed in with blooms in blue to pink tones. The elements of the composition are quite subtle and it took a number of revisits to this picture before I began to see some order in the complexity. There is a distinctive group of blue flowers in the right foreground which form a triangular shape, with a solitary blue flower of the same type placed at the far left of the frame. In between a broad band of pink/purple flowers starts in the foreground and spreads back to the centre before sweeping across to the left in front of some tree trunks.

The winning photograph in the People in the Garden section is an example of using square shapes in composition. The photograph entitled "Tai Chi" by Victor Korchenko was taken from a high viewpoint looking down at a square terrace on which a man is in a twisting posture. There is a dark tree trunk in the foreground on the left had side of the square and a narrow band of leaves on the left foreground which reveal the terrace and the figure below. The L-shape of light coloured tiles around the terrace dominate the otherwise low key scene. The figure is actually quite central in the frame, but the other off centre elements create a balanced and lively composition.

Elements of design assignment 2: Pattern

Image 29: Seedlings

Lens 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 320 f 8 at 1/160th

This is another photograph that I took whilst sheltering from the rain in a greenhouse at Loseley House (see also image 14). I thought that the variety of shapes in this mixed tray seedlings might be effective in black and white.

However, the pattern of the different trays is not particularly striking when viewed from afar. Mid-tones predominate in the image and the leaf textures only stand out for a few of the trays.

I tried further cropping to just a handful of the more striking leaf shapes, but this did not enliven the picture to a significant extent.

Image 30: Young plants

Lens 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 320 f 8 at 1/250th

I photographed these young plants at the same location.

In this case, the circular pots contrast well with the dark soil in black and white creating a strong and attractive pattern. The individual young plants also stand out clearly against the background. Each one is however slightly different and the viewer can spend some time moving around the picture.

One of the plants is in poor condition and has almost disappeared. I considered whether it would be better to exclude this part of the photograph to create a more "perfect" selection of plants. The revised version is as follows.

Image 31: Young plants - revised version

The characteristics of the picture have not been fundamentally changed. The remaining plants still have enough variety to make the picture interesting.

On balance however, I think that the original vertical frame is more lively than the almost square shape of the revised version. I therefore prefer the original version despite the imperfections.

Elements of design assignment 2: Rhythm

Image 25: Grasses at sunset

Lens 70-210mm at 70mm: Iso 250 f 20 at 1/80th

As mentioned in the previous post (see Image 24), I looked back at some photographs of grasses at sunset that I took on the South Downs in 2008. This picture is one where I felt that the composition is aided substantially by the rhythm of the repeated grass stalks across the photograph.

In this case, the eye is probably drawn first to the brightness of the setting sun in the lower right hand corner of the frame. It is then drawn to look at the line of seed heads against the sky in the upper half of the image. The viewer may also want to look at the tops of the shorter grasses across the centre of the frame.

The bright spot of the sun is acting as a "stop" rather like the man with a broom in the photograph of a palace in Jaipur included in the course notes.

Whilst there is residual detail in the dark area at the base of the grass stems there is little of visual interest in this lowest layer. This dark area seems important to the picture however as a layer of dark tone that contrasts with the progression of lighter toned layers above.

Image 26: Chestnut leaves

Lens 18 - 70mm at 70mm: Iso 800 f11 at 1/160th

This was my preferred picture from the exercise on rhythm (see post dated 25th April). As I mentioned in my comments at that time, the leaves were catching the sunlight with a background of a dark conifer. I hesitated initially about categorizing the leaves as representing a visual rhythm. However, having revisited this photograph over a number of days, I now see that the diagonal repetition of the branches and leaves which creates this sense of rhythm

Image 27: Three trees

Lens 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 640 f 7.1 at 1/320th

I took this picture of three trees whilst in Normandy at the end of April 2010. The leaves are still quite small so that the framework of branches creates the main visual interest.

The upper part of each of the three trees seems to lean or stretch across to the left side of the frame. The small dark bush on the left hand side counterbalances this left leaning stance.

The composition is slightly reminiscent of Michael Freeman's photograph of three Asian people winnowing grain.

The camera was placed on the ground at the widest angle setting to accentuate the convergence of the upper parts of the trees.

Image 28: Cactus

Lens 18-70mm at 52mm: Iso 800 f 16 at 1/60th

This is a different view of the cactus in Image 12.

The repetition of curved furrows and spines creates a visual rhythm. There is no point however for the eye to hone in on or to linger over. As a result, the composition seems to lack the vitality and interest of the other photos above.

Elements of design assignment 2: Implied triangles

Image 22: Tulips

Lens 18-70mm at 46mm: Iso 160 f 16 at 1/6oth

This is another of the photographs that I took of the bank of tulips at Castle Gardens (see also image 9).

The tulip at the top of the frame forms the apex of the triangle, and the two tulips in the centre and foreground make up a lop-sided triangle. The upturned bell shapes of the flowers fit together quite closely so that the larger bloom in the foreground seems to "frame" the two smaller sized flowers. I think that the composition works reasonably well as the simple triangular shape attracts the viewer's first glance. There is however some interesting detail to keep the viewers attention, in particular the shapes and shadows of the petals in the three flower heads. There is a relatively open space in the lower left of the frame. However, a more symmetrical triangle of flower heads with two flowers at the same level in the lower half of the frame would probably be more staid and lack vitality.

There were four blooms in the frame of the original picture but the fourth tulip at the back of the group was not sharp. I cropped the frame to place the fourth flower right in the corner of the frame and used vignette adjustment to darken the corners. The position and muted tone of this fourth flower significantly reduces its presence as a visual element.

Image 23: Azaleas

Lens 18-70mm at 70mm: Iso 640 f 8 at 1/125th

Battleston Hill at RHS Wisley Garden has a magnificent collection of rhododendrons, azaleas and other flowering shrubs many of which are in flower at the moment. This particular plant caught my attention as these flowers were quite low down so that the star shaped centre between the flower heads could be seen. In general, these bushes are covered in flowers closely packed together. I like the fact that the flower heads can be appreciated individually in this photograph.

In this photograph, the central flower is slightly lower making it the apex of a rather flat equilateral triangle with the other two flowers. I think that the symmetrical arrangement of the flowers is reasonably suitable in this case as the point of interest of the photograph is the symmetry off the flower heads. The downwards pointing apex of the triangle introduces a slight tension to the composition.

When I took the photograph, I had the two left hand flowers on the same level, with the right hand one higher up. This arrangement seemed relatively dull and lifeless. It was interesting that it made a significant difference when I rotated the original photograph clockwise by a few degrees to "balance" the triangle on its apex.

Image 24: Grasses at sunset

Lens 70-210mm at 70mm: Iso 250 f 18 at 1/60th

Thinking about portraying rhythm with a plant subject sent me back to review some photographs I took in 2008 on the South Downs of grasses silhouetted at sunset. In one of these I noticed that a group of grasses formed a triangular shape against the sky.

In this case, the triangular shape is formed by many more than three points, but I still feel the composition is essentially that of an implied triangle. The highest piece of grass forms the apex of the triangle and the adjoining grass heads slope down to either side. The sun appears near ground level at the base of the highest piece of grass. The regularity of the shape is relieved by a stray longer piece of grass on the right hand side. The grass seed heads across the frame provide visual details for the viewer to appreciate.

In the original of this photograph, the grass "skyline" in fact formed two triangles. I think that the general viewer would not notice this pattern, as I had never previously noticed this. I therefore cropped the photograph around the triangular shape behind which the sun was setting.

Elements of design assignment 2: Distinct shapes

Image 19: Fruit trees in blossom

Lens 18-70mm at 46 mm: Iso 160 f 8 at 1/320th

At Loseley House, they have some avenues of fruit trees pleached together to form arches between the trees. I noticed that this resulted in triangular spaces when viewed in the right place between the arch on one side and the flat top of the parallel row of trees. The trees were in full blossom, and I took a number of photographs of the triangular spaces.

As a visual subject, the symmetrical triangular space surrounded by blossom is a curiosity, but of limited visual interest. It was not readily possible to modify the viewpoint to improve the composition as the triangle was only visible from a particular viewpoint.

Instead, in the photograph I have chosen here, there is a stray branch standing out into the triangular space. This appears to be more interesting visually, as the triangular shape is less obvious. The eye seems to search a little around the frame before the shape is recognized.

Image 20: Crown of young tree fern sprouts

Lens 70-210mm at 116mm: Iso 1000 f 16 at 1/160th

I photographed the young sprouts on this tree fern in the gardens at RHS Wisley. The tree ferns were growing under the canopy of larger trees, but the dappled afternoon sunlight was just catching the young sprouting fronds. I was attracted to the spiral shapes and bristly texture of the plant.

I used my telephoto zoom lens to obtain a narrow field of view as the background was for the most part quite bright with only small darker areas. Even so, I needed to reduce the brightness of one of the central leaves in the background in Photoshop. The background foliage was a long way behind the tree fern and so it is quite blurred and indistinct.

I chose this particular photograph as two fronds on the left and two on the right can be seen sideways on so that the tight curled up spirals are visible and there is balance between right and left. The shape seems reminiscent of a royal crown engraved with decorations and faceted jewels.

There is a lot of visual detail in this picture, as well as the overall shape. The spirals have a fibrous surface, small leaves are starting to appear, and at the base of the frame there is a mass of coarse fibres with small highlights.

Image 21: A spiral nebula of a million stars?

Lens 70-210mm at 145mm: Iso 800 f 16 at 1/90th (tripod)

I photographed this cactus in the greenhouse at RHS Wisley. At first glance, it was some little pink flowers on a grey green plant which drew me to look more closely at this plant. In black and white however, it is the beautiful pattern of little white star shapes radiating from the centre of the plant surrounded by concentric tone circles. A closer look reveals that the tonal gradation arises from the spacing of hundreds of small pyramid shapes again appearing to radiate from the centre of the plant.

The astronomical analogy struck me having seen the enigmatic first photograph in the series by Frans Lanting "A journey through time" for Life. His photograph has a similar radial composition starting with a light centre, surrounded by a surface of multicoloured hues and straight lines radiating from the centre. He uses this picture to portray the birth of the universe as described in the Big Bang Theory. The actual subject he photographed is given by the photograph's title "Petrified Wood, Arizona". This maybe illustrates how powerful and mysterious an allegorical meaning can be.

In the case of my own photograph, this cactus is, I believe, a popular subject for many photographers visiting RHS Wisley. The off-centre composition and viewpoint from directly above are not unusual. I feel however that the picture in black and white still has reasonable visual strength, both the initial impression of the concentric circles of tone inviting the viewer to examine the small stars and shapes around the plant.

Elements of design assignment 2: Curved lines

Image 16: Natural style garden

Lens 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 160 f7.1 at 1/160th

A part of the gardens at Loseley House was planted in a naturalistic way with larger plants surrounded by broad sweeps of small flowers. This seemed an opportunity to try and capture an interesting photograph of a complex scene.

Such photographs are the mainstay of many articles in the English Gardens magazine. I also was inspired by three photographs by Marianne Marjerus that I saw at Kew Gardens Exhibition: "Layered landscape" which was one of the winners of the International Garden Photograph of the Year 2010. The two other photographs by her were also finalists: "Morning Light" and "Stipa gigantica...." . The structure of the visual elements in this type of photograph is not obvious at first and I returned to these photographs a few times to try and understand the composition.

I selected the above photograph from several I that took of the flower beds. I hope that the viewer follows the sweep of small white flowers that starts in the foreground and forms a diagonal across the frame and finally curves behind a larger green plant. I adjusted the cropping of the original photograph to attract the eye to follow this shape. From the right hand side of the frame, I cropped out another area of white flowers which attracted the eye around to the right of the larger green plant without crossing the frame. I also cropped some bushes and shrubs from the top of the original frame which drew attention away from the curve of white behind the larger plant in the centre right.

Image 17: Formal style garden

Lens 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 160 f 7.1 at 1/160th

In contrast to the natural style of planting in the previous picture, there is also an area of formal style flower beds at Loseley. In this photograph, I took advantage of a sunny spell to photograph a curved pathway edged by conical shaped bushes. I set the lens to wide angle to emphasize the sweep of the pathway and the v-shape of the flower bed.

The clean cut lines of the path and the shadows results in a photograph which has strong visual elements. However, to my mind the shape is not sufficiently interesting to make a compelling image. The eye follows the path to the top right of the frame, but there is nothing of interest at that point. The eye therefore roams down the right hand side of the frame and back across the foreground looking for points of interest, without finding anything. The curving shape in this case is not sufficient to sustain the viewers interest.

Image 18: Curvaceous leaves

Lens 18-70mm at 70mm: Iso 800 f 16 at 1/30th (tripod)

I photographed the leaves of this large succulent or cactus in the temperate greenhouse at RHS Wisley. The leaves are about 1 metre across and the plant was growing on the side of a rock wall so that the leaves were almost vertical. This allowed reflected sunlight to reveal the edges and curvaceous form of the leaves.

In this photograph, unlike the previous one, it is the curved shapes and tones of the leaves that attract the eye to wander up and down and around the photograph.

I needed to use the narrowest field of view with the lens at full zoom in order to fill the frame with the plant leaves. I just cropped out a narrow strip from the top and side of the original photograph to remove some remaining distractions.

Elements of design assignment 2: Diagonal lines

Image 13: Old Wisteria plant

Lens 70-210mm at 80mm: Iso 400 f8 at 1/160th

I took many photographs of this wisteria in Normandy, France at the end of April. The bush was covered in flowers but it was not easy to select a frame with visual order and interest. In this photograph, it was the criss-crossing branches near the base of the old trunk that attracted my attention.

In the original photograph, I had included more bunches of flowers outside the left hand side and above the top of the frame now remaining. I cropped these out in order to accentuate the diagonal branches.

Mid-tones predominate in the picture and overcast skies mean that the shadows are too faint to reveal very much form or texture of the plant. It would have been interesting to have taken to the same subject in low-angled sunlight.

Image 14: Young plants

Lens 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 320 f8 at 1/90th

I photographed this tray of plants in a greenhouse at Loseley House whilst sheltering from the rain.

I set the lens on wide angle and chose a viewpoint slightly above the corner of the seed tray just outside the minimum focussing distance. The wide angle perspective distorts the shape of the box in the foreground to a more acute angle. It also accentuates the converging lines of the young plants towards to back of the box.

The square frame arose from rotation and cropping of the original horizontal frame.

Image 15: Stripes

Lens 18-70mm at 38mm: Iso 400 f8 at 1/80th

I saw this plant in the greenhouse at RHS Wisley and hoped that the geometric form and leaf stripes of this plant would come out well in black and white. I chose this viewpoint in order to place the upper leaves on a diagonal from left to right, at the same time placing some of the lower leaves pointing towards the bottom left and upper right of the frame. In the original photograph, I included the full length of the diagonal upper leaves in the frame. I decided that a closer crop was more effective when working on the images last week.

Elements of design assignment 2: vertical and horizontal lines

As well as taking some additional photographs, I have included here a photograph of fallen trees that I considered to be my preferred photograph when doing the exercise on vertical and horizontal lines.

Image 10: Tree trunks

Nikon 18-70 mm lens at 18mm: Iso 100 f8 at 1/60th

This is a photograph of a tree that had fallen in the water in Windsor Great Park. I tried to find a viewpoint where the three main trunks were "vertical" in the frame as well as including the shadow of the left hand trunk. The water is reflecting the bright cloudy sky which helped to create a silhouette of the tree trunks. The surface of the water together with the wavelets and a number of branches present some secondary horizontal features in the picture. The contrast in textures and tones is one of the reasons why I am drawn to this photograph.

Whilst geometrically, perspective means that the trunks converge at the top of the photograph, I feel that a viewer will still "see" the tree trunks as roughly parallel. I therefore have included this photograph in this section.

Image 11: Daffodils under the trees

Lens 18-70mm at 70mm: Iso 200 f8 at 1/180th

In this photograph, the horizontal bands of the blooms, the darker stems and grass in the middle ground are the primary visual elements in the frame. The trunk of the tree framing the left hand side of the photograph, and the background tree trunks provide a secondary vertical element in the picture. The lens viewpoint and focal length were chosen so that no sky showed under the branches of the foreground tree. In this final version of the photo, however, I have cropped out the branch that originally stretched right across the top of the frame. This branch had an arched shape which detracted from the otherwise horizontal bands. The top edge of the frame is preferable I think to the tunnel-like effect of the branch.

The resulting composition is pleasing and creates some order to the scene. However, it seems unlikely to invite a second glance. The photograph of the tree trunks above has far more vitality.

Image 12: Cactus spines

Lens 18-70mm at 55mm: Iso 800 f14 at 1/60th

I photographed this large globe-shaped cactus at RHS Wisley attracted by the repetitive pattern of curves and spines. I placed the camera on the ground to get a suitable viewpoint, which meant that I could not look through the viewfinder (My Nikon camera does not have a live view option). I adjusted the focal length by trial and error until the cactus body filled the frame.

When working on the photographs, it was the contrast between the dark vertical furrows of the body of the cactus and the bright translucent spines that caught my eye. I spent some time in deciding where to crop the larger original photograph to the above, seeking to accentuate the vertical and horizontal lines in the picture.

The end result has a reasonably strong visual impact, I feel.

Elements of design assignment 2: points in shape

Image 8: Seedlings

Lens 70-200mm at 155mm with close up lens: Iso 400 f10 at 1/3oth (tripod)

I planted some rocket and salad seeds in a seed tray and took some photographs of the seedlings from various viewpoints.

A group of the seedlings had sprouted in this semicircular shape and I took this photograph from above with the camera on a tripod. At f10 the depth of field kept the leaves sharp but the compost below is blurred.

The compositional adjustments I made were to:-

• rotate the picture a few degrees clockwise. In the original photograph the two end leaves were equidistant from the edge of the frame, which made the picture seem quite static.
• crop the top and right hand edge of the frame to exclude some other leaves. Whilst the other leaves had sprouted unusually in a square shape, I thought that a simple composition would be better.

Image 9: Tulips at Castle Gardens

Lens 18-70mm at 70mm: Iso 160 f8 at 1/125th

The tulips were planted in a flower bed on a sloping bank which separates the flowers vertically as well as horizontally. I took a number of photographs in the morning when the sun was behind the plants, the translucent petals and leaves contrasting with the dark ground tone.

This picture was cropped from a larger picture of about seventeen flowers. There were two groupings of blooms which formed definable shapes, this one in an elongated diamond shape stretching from bottom left to top right. The other group were in a square shape with three blooms across the top with two or three flowers vertically below the end blooms. I chose this composition as the eye seems drawn along and around the array of flowers. The square shape did not draw the eye as much and the image had less impact as a result.

Elements of design assignment 2: Two points

Image 5: Tulips amongst the vegetables

Lens 18-70mm at 25mm: Iso 125 f8 at 1/40th

Whilst in the gardens of Loseley House, near Guildford, I was attracted by the curious sight of some red tulips emerging above the leaves of a large rhubarb-like vegetable. In black and white however there was little contrast between the tulip petals and the leaf and the flowers were barely noticeable. In this case, therefore, I decided to keep a little colour in the tulip petals as an exception to the full black and white format of the other photographs.

I decided to include this photograph in this review, as this seems to be a relatively extreme example of two points which are far away from each other in the frame. As a result, the relationship between the points that is generally implied by inclusion together in a photograph seems relatively weak. Furthermore, this "distant relationship" seems to be accentuated by the way the flowers are angled away from each other.

This photograph is unlikely to be included in the final portfolio as the colour element is too different to the other images.

Image 6: Leaves with velvet surface

Lens 18-70mm at 60mm: Iso 800 f10 at 1/100th

Whilst in the temperate greenhouse at RHS Wisley, the velvety surface of the leaves of this bush caught my eye as I thought that the texture would suit black and white treatment.

The composition is quite symmetrical with the tops of the two stems virtually equidistant from the centre line. I feel that this suits this particular plant which is itself quite ordered and symmetrical. Pairs of leaves emerge at right angles to the leaves below.

The content of the picture does not seem monotonous as the eye is led around the frame viewing the leaves of various sizes and angles squeezed together. I feel that there is a feeling of harmony and partnership conveyed by this picture.

I decided to categorize this picture visually as one of two points as I felt that the light coloured top leaves are dominant visually in the frame. The outline shapes of the plants seem to be me to be less important.

Image 7: Two flowers

Canon Powershot 6-72 mm at 36mm: Iso 400 f3.5 at 1/320th

I photographed these flowers at Kew Gardens in the New Zealand section of the temperate greenhouse. I chose a viewpoint and zoom setting to place the dark area at the far end of the pond as a background as far as possible. I used the smallest aperture so that the pale violet flowers stand out.

I cropped out an area on the right hand side of the original frame as this contained some light spots in the background which were distracting and another bud and stem of little interest.

I chose not to crop the left hand side of the frame closer to the flowers. The off-centre placement of the flowers seems more interesting even though there are only blurred tones in the left hand side of the frame.

Elements of design assignment 2; Single point

Since Wednesday, I have been reviewing the photographs of plants and flowers in order to select those that match the effects that we are asked to present. In this and the following entries, I will review the short list of photos that I have taken relating to each of the ten effects, one by one.

These short listed photographs have all been converted to black and white with one exception.

Image 1: Dandelion

Lens 18 - 70 mm at 18mm: Iso 160 f8 at 1/40th

I photographed this dandelion catching the morning sun, under a tree in Guildford Castle grounds. From the angled viewpoint, the line of bright sunlight not only lights up the flower, but the diagonal line from top centre of the frame to the lower right breaks up the uniformity of the grass background and enlivens the photograph. Michael Freeman suggests in the course notes that the position of the subject divides the frame into areas defined by implied vertical and horizontal lines through that point. To my eye, this effect was more apparent in the photographs of single dolphins or birds noted in my blog of 16th March 2010. In this photograph however, the diagonal line of sunlight seem to direct the viewer from the dandelion towards the bottom left of the frame as if the dandelion were "facing" in that direction.

Image 2: Fallen petal

Lens 18 - 70mm at 18mm: Iso 160 f8 at 1/180th

At the same location, this petal lay on the grass at some distance from a magnolia tree and the other fallen petals. The relatively narrow frame makes the petal stand out. Unlike the first photograph, the more horizontal viewpoint and wide angle lens creates a reasonably strong feeling of perspective.

I have considered this picture to be a "single point" composition even though in the background there is the base of the magnolia tree surrounded by more fallen petals. My reason for this is that these background elements are far less prominent than the foreground petal. It is the petal which dominates the composition for example when viewed at medium distance. Also, cropping out the background does not seem to have a significant effect on the photograph. I decided to retain the blurred background however as I wanted the effect of the tall vertical frame and the feeling of depth.

The shadow of the branches make a triangular shape in the frame and this adds some vitality to the overall composition. This does not have the dramatic effect of the curving line of shadow in the photograph of a house and tree in the course notes on "Using lines in composition".

A significant weakness of this photograph is that the pear-drop shape of the magnolia petal is not interesting enough as a shape to hold the viewer's interest for very long. I think that the picture would have been stronger if I had found something more complicated such as a whole flower head as the point of visual interest.

Image 3: Magnolia petal amongst other fallen flowers

Lens 18 - 70 mm at 18mm: Iso 400 f7.1 1/90th

In this photograph the light coloured magnolia petal has fallen amongst darker toned camelia flowers and leaves. Whilst the magnolia stands out as the single main point in the frame, the background is "busy" with other shapes and forms. Depth of field is also absent as the photograph was taken square to the ground, and this make the picture rather "flat". I would not therefore choose this picture over the previous two.

Image 4: Feather-like palm leaves

Lens 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 800 f16 at 1/8th (tripod)

The course notes include an example of the centre of a flower as a single point in the frame. This prompted me to look for a similar composition at the various locations I visited. A flower close up was ruled out as the weather was generally blustery outdoors, and I preferred not to spend time setting up a still-life photograph indoors for this assignment. I photographed the interior of this low-growing palm in the temperate greenhouse at RHS Wisley. I was attracted by the feather like leaves and their unusually light colour. The high-key tone of the photograph seems to emphasize the feather-like appearance of the leaves.

In order to keep the detail of the centre sharp, I found that f16 was necessary even at wide angle. I therefore needed to use a tripod for this photograph.

As a composition, the off-centre position of the centre of the plant is without doubt conventional. However, I enjoy the textures and tones of the picture even if it is relatively unoriginal.

Guildford Photosoc - Workshop on LAB color mode

Yesterday evening, I attended a workshop on LAB color mode techniques using Photoshop CS3. The workshop was given by Bronwen Brighton a photographer based in Farnham. The session was interesting for me as it provided a better understanding of both the basics of the RGB color mode as well as the LAB color mode. In LAB mode, the three channels treat color in a different way:-

• L channel: has no color but expresses dark or light only
• A channel: expresses the range of hues from green at one end to magenta at the other end.
• B channel: expresses the range of hues from blue at one end to yellow at the other end.

The mid position in A and B position represents mid grey.

Use of LAB mode can be a useful alternative way of enlivening dull pictures, adjusting color casts. It can also be used in a way to select areas of a particular hue spread throughout a picture (even where some parts are lighter or darker).

This may be worth referring back to in the next part of the course on Colour.

Bronwen Brighton's gallery of photographs are quite unusual both as regards the subjects and compositions. I may wish to revisit her gallery again as the course progresses.

Elements of design - assignment 2 planning

The objective of this assignment is to incorporate the insights learned so far in putting together a portfolio of ten or more photographs on one of the following subject types:

- flowers and plants

- landscapes

- street details

- raw materials of food

Two of these initially attracted my attention:

• Flowers and plants because we live not far from the Royal Horticultural Gardens at Wisley in Surrey. I felt that at Wisley I should be able to find the variety of subjects required. I had also noted that English Gardens magazine each month showcases a plant photograph and a photographer from the Garden Photographers Association. I was surprised that such an association existed as I had not considered photographs of plants to be of much interest.
• Raw materials of food because I enjoy cooking and I feel reasonably familiar with the potential subject matter. Also, I was impressed by the assignment 2 portfolio on this subject by "Chickwit" that I found whilst browsing the OCA website. Having learnt something of still life photography at the workshop on studio photography, this would be an opportunity to practice such techniques.

However, I decided that I would choose "flowers and plants" as I felt that this would be more challenging. The occasional photographs of plants that I have taken before starting this OCA course have not generally been very interesting. I also thought that I might have time, if necessary, to change to "raw materials of food" if I was getting nowhere with "flowers and plants".

I used a similar approach to assignment 2 as with assignment 1.

a) I listed the various types of visual elements that are to be included in the portfolio and noted down as many different ways as I could think of of taking photographs of each kind.
b) I listed down the various locations where I hoped to find these subjects. In this case, my list of potential locations within a reasonable distance was:-

• RHS Wisley Gardens: Trees, shrubs, spring flowers, vegetables, temperate and tropical greenhouses.
• Castle Gardens, Guildford: Flower beds
• Loseley Park Gardens, Surrey: Walled vegetable garden
• West Dean House, Hampshire: Trees, shrubs, vegetable gardens
• Ramster House: Trees and shrubs with small lakes
• Allotments: vegetables
• Kew Gardens: Trees, spring flowers, temperate and tropical greenhouses.

c) I have been out taking photographs when the weather has been reasonably bright for the past week. In some cases, I have found the photographs that I was hoping for, but I have taken many more photographs that I had not anticipated beforehand. I have been able to review the photographs after each session to weed out the failures and rejects.

My plan is to evaluate the photographs taken so far in relation to the assignment objectives with the aim of producing a shortlist of photographs for the portfolio. Also, this may show that I need to take some more photographs to fill in any gaps or replace photographs which lack impact.

I have also looked for ideas from a number of sources specializing in plant photography:-

• English Gardens magazine
• RHS Prints
• Kew International Garden Photographer of the Year

I hope to go to the Kew International Garden Photographer exhibition sometime in the next week. I also intend to look up:-

• the work of Heather Angel who I note is running a four day course on plant photography at Kew Gardens starting today.
• the photographs and portfolios of the Association of Garden Photographers