Focus on Nature Photography
Friday, July 4, 2008 @ 02:35
Nothing makes a better photography subject than nature, and flowers are at the top of the list in that genre. They are cheap, easy to get hold of, and are generally available year-round. They give us lots to work with – color, texture, structure, and yes, even scent.
Now you may be wondering, how in the heck can scent be imported into a photograph? Easy, with mood and lighting. When you take a picture of a flower, you don't want to just shoot it. You want to create a mood with it, and make the shot something that will get the viewer's imagination going. If you frame the shot right, the viewer will literally be able to smell the scent that flower is giving off, and it won't require that much special effort from you.
When you frame the flowers you are using for your photo, think about creating a mood. Maybe take the photo of some irises on their stems, perhaps in the very early morning, when the dew is still fresh on the leaves. Maybe you will even get lucky and find a bunch of them with a bee buzzing around. Now if that doesn't create the mood, I don't know what would. It is not hard to imagine the bee in search of the pollen from those blooms, and the smells they are giving off.
You can also use secondary subjects to describe the primary one. How about someone smelling a bouquet of roses, the heavenly expression on her face, or even someone just getting ready to sneeze after getting too close to a row of wildflowers.
You can easily employ secondary subjects in your photographs in order to tell the primary story, and give your photographs a sense of time and place, and yes, even in some cases scent. It's all in the creativity of the photographer.
