My blooms.

[Alicja Burnette]

I am a professional photographer (portrait and wedding, not nature), and not a professional gardener. I live in CA in the central valley, which is very arid and we are in the midst of a record setting drought. This is my third spring in our first home, my first year really digging in (hehe) to gardening. I've had a few disappointments in some bulbs but I'm thinking I may have missed the ideal planting times as we had NO winter this year so I didn't really know when to start.

 

[Alicja Burnette]

 

[Alicja Burnette]

Well shucks it won't let me add any more photos, not even as a reply.

 

[claudine]

Wow, these pictures are truly beautiful! My favorite is the second one, this pink flower looks really lovely
It's weird that you can't add more photos. Maybe try to do it in a new post? I'd love to see more of your flowers

 

[Becky]

What beautiful photos! Great to have you here

Sorry to hear you've been having trouble uploading more photos, what did the error say?

 

[Alicja Burnette]

It just kept saying it couldn't add them agh! I'm going to size them down; they are pretty large file sizes...

 

[Alicja Burnette]

Alright, here we go! I guess the files were just too big.

 

[claudine]

Thank you for sharing these lovely pictures! It's a great pleasure to look at them. In my opinion there is nothing more beautiful than colorful flowers I especially love the picture number 5. Are those morning glories?

 

[Alicja Burnette]

Thank you! I'm enjoying them all right now, as by mid-summer not even the hardiest plants will be able to take the 110-115 degree heat. Good thing is that a lot of annuals become perennials here LOL. #5 are petunias....I have about a million pots of every shade as they are so easy to grow. :-p

 

[claudine]

Your petunias are stunning Now, I want to start growing them, too. Thank you for sharing all these wonderful pictures
I love hot weather, but I'm sure that 110-115 degree heat would be too much for me

 

[Alicja Burnette]

Thank you! They have been so easy to grow. They apparently love the heat because I'd moved some of my pots to an area that gets shade a few hours a day and they started to die. Moved them to the sun and they perked right back up. And trust me, the heat is too much for me too. Pretty much hibernate all summer.

 

[Becky]

Gosh those photos are stunning! I'm glad you managed to get them uploaded in the end! Any tips for photographing flowers? Do you use a flash or is it just natural sunlight?

 

[Alicja Burnette]

Thank you thank you! I'm still learning as I'm used to photographing people, but good thing is flowers don't move (unless it's windy ).

I don't use flash, I use a macro lens and stop my aperture down a bit (max on the lens I use is 2.8 but I stay around 5+ as the smaller depth of field on a close up image makes way too much background blur. As with most subjects, flowers and people alike, best time to shoot is shortly after sunrise and just before sunset. As you can see, some where shot in bright daylight (the freesias and fuchsias most notably) and the lighting is harsh and not very visually appealing. I've been meaning to get out at sunset and shoot around, maybe tonight!

 

[Becky]

Thanks for the tips! I didn't realise that it was best to take photos around sunrise/sunset, I'll have to try that

 

[Alicja Burnette]

Yes! When the light is naturally diffused by the horizon, you get a nice soft glow and no harsh overhead shadows. I have to say I prefer morning light for flowers, evening light for humans.