As you know I am a landscape and nature (including wild life) photographer. So, when I talk about flower photography I am not talking about doing anything in a studio or using artificial light. That does not mean that I dislike studio or artificially lit flower images, they can be gorgeous. That however, is just a different kind of photography that I am not into. My style of photography would include flowers in the landscape or I would photograph them in nature; where and as they are.

This Cala Lilly was shot at Big Sur, California. When I am out photographing landscape images I often find wild flowers. When conditions are right I include them in my landscapes. Conditions are right when I do not have a lot a wind as to render the flower out of focus (after I acquired as fast a shutter speed as I can by utilizing a high ISO). The light must also be right.

          On this particular day the sky was just drab and gray. Since this is at the ocean there was no way to photograph the landscape without getting a lot of sky in. We had also had some rain. Now when you combine drab gray skies with flowers after rain you get conditions that really suit outdoor flower photography. I forgot about the landscape for a bit and focussed on the flower. Flowers just love soft defused light (the clouds acts as a huge defuser). Rain drops add a lot of interest.

Here are a few tips on shooting flowers in nature:

• Wait for drab gray skies

• If it did not rain, spray the flowers and leaves with fine mist till you get nice drops

• Fill your image with the flower and or leaves

• Pay attention to any lines the leaves make and use them to lead into the image

• Since the light is flat add good contrast in post processing

• Use a small f-stop to increase your depth of field if you cannot isolate the flower from the background

• Use a large f-stop to blur the background if you can isolate the flower from the background

• Pay attention to your composition as you would with a landscape image