Fancy yourself as a garden photographer? If you took some beautiful festive garden shots, snapped some interesting flora and fauna on a winter walk, captured the intricate details of a flower or leaf, or took a picture of wildlife in motion, there's still time to enter the RHS annual photographic competition.
World renowned garden photographer Richard Bloom (richardbloom.co.uk), one of the competition judges, offers the following tips on how to get the best out of the outdoor world on camera. After all, nature photography is one of the more socially distant and safe pastimes in the current climate...
Find the light
The best light for garden photography is early morning or evening on a sunny day, ideally within the first hour of sunrise or last before sunset, when the sun is low and the light is soft and golden.
Aim from the side
Compose the scene with the light coming into it from the side or backlit rather than straight on. This will help to create mood, contrast and depth to the image.
Shoot for diagonals
Including diagonals creates both depth and drama. If a garden has a path or stream running through it, find an angle where these elements are arranged diagonally so the eye travels through the image from foreground to background.
Consider unusual perspectives
Photograph from low down or from high up. Plant portraits and close ups are often best from a low angle, depending on the plant.
Capture colours
The best conditions for recording colour in the garden is when it's cloudy or early or late in the day, as colours appear more saturated when the light is diffused.
Take inspiration from previous winners
Last year's Overall Young Winner Elliot Connor, scooped first prize with his dramatic snapshot of a perching bush cricket in Australia's Garigal National Park.
Offering words of wisdom for this year's entrants, Connor says: "Entering a photography competition of this calibre can seem like a leap of faith, but it's well worth the effort. The best pictures, I feel, are those that change our perspective.
"Look for new angles, get creative with shadows or silhouettes, be choosy about your backgrounds and bold in the execution. I hope that this year's competition goes even further in lightening Covid's load, as a celebration of the great outdoors."
Photographers of all levels are invited to submit their work across 10 distinct categories, including 'Indoor Gardening', 'Welcoming Wildlife' and 'Plants'.
For ambitious photographers, the unique 'Portfolio' category requires a collection of at least six images united by a common theme or style, with the opportunity to be awarded a prestigious RHS Medal.
Entry to the RHS Photographic Competition is free and open to everyone, and images can be taken on any photographic device. Entries should be submitted online at rhs.org.uk/photocomp by 10am on Monday, February 1, 2021. Winners will be announced in April on the RHS website.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here