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Another morning photographing the garden in March

By Jon Enman
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By Jon Enman

Early in the morning, I got a text message from my friend Jo that said, “Good morning, it’s snowing down here.” I told her it was up at my place too with big flakes.

Her reply was, “If I come up when it’s light can I borrow your macro lens? I want to take some pictures of the snow in the garden.” I said, “Of course.

An hour later when Jo and her daughter showed up. It had stopped snowing but there was still some left on the plants.

I got my 70-180mm macro lens out, mounted a flash on a light stand, and gave her my TTL flash trigger so she could use the same High-Speed Sync technique I wrote about in my last article. We then set up a video game for her daughter as it was “too cold for me” she says and went out in the snowy morning looking for some interesting subjects for Jo to photograph.

The sky had cleared up and the snow was melting fast.

Whenever Jo found something to photograph I would position the flash to one side. After the first few tests, we knew how far away I needed to locate the flash so as not to under or overexpose her subjects. Then, as the day got brighter, all she had to do was decide how bright she wanted the background and increase or decrease the shutter speed to achieve it.

I had my camera just in case, but Jo had some good ideas and I enjoyed being the “lighting guy,” moving the flash around to see what kind of effect she could get so I didn’t bother using it.

The snow was deep and more than once we filled our boots. However, there was lots to photograph and although we both complained we didn’t really care. And for me, it is always interesting to watch how and what another photographer does in a location that I have photographed.

I just remembered that I wrote about Jo and me photographing the March garden snow a couple of years ago and at that time I said, “I know there are many photographers that only take pictures of plants when they are in bloom and prefer colourful representations. However, spring, summer, fall, winter, snow, rain, sunny, or overcast, my garden is filled with ever-changing subjects that always offer something new.”

My advice to photographers was then and still is, if they wait for inspiring weather before that next garden safari they are missing a good opportunity. There’s always something to photograph no matter the weather or the season – just get up close and look for the small stuff.

These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net. Stop by Enman’s Camera at 423 Tranquille Road in Kamloops. I sell an interesting selection.

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