by James Richardson

Created on: July 14, 2008

Wildflowers make a very desirable, easy-to-find subject for any photographer. I have shot numerous collections of wildflowers, one encompassing just subjects that I found growing along the side of my rural, north-eastern street.

Have you ever looked at your digital camera and wondered what the little flower icon means? Well, it stands for macro, or close-up, mode, and is a necessity for shooting flowers. Macro mode basically tells the camera to focus only on that which is positioned closest to the lens. It generally results in a razor-sharp depth of field for the foreground subject(s) contrasted against a soft-focused background.

To access macro mode, simply rotate your camera's mode dial to the flower icon or push the similarly marked button. Whether it's a button or a dial position is up to each manufacturer. Check out your camera's user guide if you're unsure.

Since wildflowers have dazzling arrays of color, consider setting your camera's capture and/or color settings to vivid or the like. What this does is it allows for greater color saturation in the photos taken-a desirable effect in showing off flowers. In post-process editing, you can easily enhance saturation, brightness, and other effects; however, taking the finest picture possible straight from the camera is always your best bet. If your camera has RAW capabilities and you are familiar with doing RAW editing, you may consider this shooting mode for wildflowers. The pictures you develop, their coloration, saturation, etc. will be limited only by your imagination.

When you are finally ready to step out into the wildflower field, keep some of the following tips in mind. Try shooting flowers at different times of day. Many photographers shun mid-day shooting because of the harsh sunlight and resultant shadows. A cloudy day, while seemingly unattractive, can yield some of the most pleasant light for shooting photos. But that's not to say that a midday shot might not be absolutely stellar-sometimes you only have one chance to take a photo of something! Take all the photos you can-duds can always be deleted later.

You might also try moving the subject flower around a bit. Just grasp it by the stem someplace where your hand is out of the camera's frame of view. You can then move the flower around, whether it be out of shadows, or pointing toward your lens.

Pay attention to background. Even though macro mode is going to blur the background anyway, a soft-focused, yet recognizable background can add much beauty and dimension to wildflower shots. Consider this: a tiger lily silhouette as the sun sets off in the far distance. That's just one example of a dramatic flower shot that I have captured making use of light and background.

Try shooting some unique angles. Do a close-up of a flower's mid-section. The anthers, stigmas, pollen grains, and petals have intriguing textures and details that are not immediately visible to the naked eye. You'll be surprised at how much more your camera can see when in macro mode. Getting down on all fours and shooting a flower from underneath can also yield some curiously beautiful shots.

Summertime is a great time of year to get out and do more than just "smell the flowers." So much beauty exists in these tiny packages, yet they're often overlooked by most casual observers. Macro mode, and the relative ease of use among consumer digital cameras today has empowered just about anyone to be able to make stunning wildflower photos. Bringing the beauty of wildflowers into your home no longer needs to be confined to table-top vases and wax-paper pressingsall you need is a digital camera and a little creativity!

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