by Keith K.

Created on: January 21, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

Wildflower Photography
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There's probably no outdoor activity which gets you as close to wildflowers as camping. Have you ever wanted to photograph those blooms growing by the door of your tent? Maybe you'd like to check your pictures against the flower book for identification purposes when you get home. Or, possibly, you'd just like a pleasant souvenir of your visit.

You could have been put off by some "expert" telling you about all the expensive equipment you'll need. I'd like to tell you how to take reasonable pictures with what you may already have. A single-lens reflex (SLR) camera is best, because it works on the principle of "what you see is what you get".

If you're dealing with larger flowers, you can get reasonable results with a compact camera. For smaller ones, you'd need to carry out lengthy experiments to see just how close you can get to your subject. You should also understand parallax, and how much you have to "aim off" to get the flower where you want it in your picture. It's not impossible, but it takes a lot of trial and error, possibly on your garden flowers, to get it right.

If you are going shopping for extras, you'll find a tripod useful, and maybe some close-up lenses. These screw or clip to your camera lens, and come in varying strengths called dioptres. The higher the dioptre, the closer you can get to your subject, and you can usually combine two or more to arrive at an even higher figure.

Experts will say rude things about their optical quality, and they're right If you insist on pin-sharp perfection, don't use them. But, if it's "just for the album", why not?

Because you're getting by without all those fancy lenses and stuff, a piece of absolutely essential non-photographic kit has to be a poncho or a ground-sheet. That's because you need to get really close to your subject, and to do that, you have to get right down there among the thistles and the cow-pats. You'll take care, of course, not to crush or trample other flowers, just to get at the specimen you're interested in.

A useful, rather than essential extra is some kind of portable reflector. Flowers aren't always obliging enough to grow where there's plenty of light, so you need some way of bringing extra light in without resorting to the artificiality of flash. But, if you don't have a purpose-built reflector with you, anything light-coloured, like your map, or even your shirt will do.

There are some other things you can use your clothing for in wildflower photography. It might, therefore,

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