In April 2009 I discussed macro photography and some of the equipment I thought would be helpful for photographers to “get satisfying and successful close up-photographs”. I was hopeful readers would check out and try going beyond using the lens that came attached to the camera when they purchased it and, perhaps, even take the plunge, and start using a sturdy tripod when venturing in to the world of close-up photography.

Although I haven’t heard from any readers about their successes or seen any examples I expect some did take my advice with equipment and enjoyed the spring and summer happily photographing flowers, gardens, and perhaps insects.

I have spent the last two weekends photographing weddings and, of course, that means for me to include spending hours on the computer retouching, and optimizing my digital images into high resolution photographs, and today as I made the final set of CDs for last weekend’s newly weds I thought wandering around with my camera in my wife’s garden would be a relaxing change and lots of fun.

Garden photography is usually a spring adventure, however some years ago I attended a lecture and slide show by a photographer that specialized in close-up photography of withered leaves and branches. I have to admit that she had an incredibly creative eye for the subject she chose. One of several presenters on that day on macro and close-up photography, she impressed me the most, but when reviewing my notes later I realized I didn’t write down her name.

Today I thought of her style of close-up photography as I wandered through the garden searching for subjects that I thought would work, if not as a beautiful flower, then at least as a graphic form.

For close-up garden work my preferred tripod is a Benbo. The Benbo tripod www.patersonphotgraphic.com is sometimes a struggle to use, but because of it’s unconventional construction will take almost any position, even setting up a few inches off the ground. I also use a 200mm macro lens and because I ventured out late in the day I attached a macro speed light or “ring flash”. A ring flash is a flash that instead of mounting on top of the camera, mounts on the front of the macro lens and places the light emitting tubes adjacent to it.

The long focal length lens allows me to position myself well away from my wife’s plants, yet still has the same magnification, as if I used a more popular focal lengths like a 50mm or 60mm lens, and the ring flash places the light closer to the plants level than a flash mounted atop the camera that, at close distances, would send the light above my small subjects.

Morning is the best time to photograph plants because they are fresher and haven’t dried under the sun. But this morning didn’t work for me, so I settled on late afternoon light for my garden photography. I first walked around peering under and around the bushes looking for something different. There were lots of green leaves with brown tips and with all the heat we have had this summer much of the garden didn’t have interesting colour to work with at all. I liked the yellow grasses and would have photographed them, but there was a slight breeze and even though I tried I couldn’t keep them in focus. There is a large rosebush trellis and I realized the plants under that weren’t affected by the breeze. So I moved my setup under that and began photographing the different shrubs and flowers that had been growing there all summer.

That’s where I found the fern-leaf Caragana shrub that I photographed and have included. (Linda advised me of its name.)

As I wrote in my April column on Garden Photography “My personal preference is not to tear plants out of the ground or cut them for the picture so I have lot of pointed dowels, string and other ties to help me move other plants out of the way or to position my intended subjects. The background is easily dealt with by limiting the depth of field, blocking the light with a piece of cardboard, or using, as I sometimes do, a black backdrop placed strategically behind so a plant or flower so that it looks like it was photographed in a studio setting. I isolate and highlight my subject, sometimes by lighting it differently, sometimes by the way I selectively focus it, and sometimes by the composition or perspective I choose as I look through my camera’s viewfinder.”

For the fern-leaf Caragana I wanted a dark, under-exposed background without detail, and using a flash in the failing afternoon, light worked perfectly.

Take a walk through your garden. Even though spring (and the snows of winter) are the preferred time the changes to the plants are worth photographing.