I have been trying to photograph the flowers from my garden in a different way. I have been looking at John Blakemore's Black and White Photography Workshop in which he describes his nine year relationship with tulips. I also remembered the photographs in Roger Phillips' Wild Flowers of Britain. I wanted to have a formality to the layout coupled with a natural feel. I layed the flowers on sloping board so I could have surface almost parallel to the camera's sensor. I wanted to use natural light but had to close curtains and diffuse the light. Some simple work in Windows Photo Gallery helped reduce shadows but it was a rather impromptu affair. More time and care with lighting could produce more detail. These are the most successful of the first group.
I feel this shot is my most successful, the chive shape echoes the knapweed base, the honesty and chives share colour, and the poppy brings the whole thing to life.
This was my best aquilegia shot, but it doesn't show the form as well as I hoped.
Definitely a candidate for more work
The woodruff is an ideal subject with its whorls of leaves -
more manipulation of the plant could create a more formal layout.
