Introduction
As I write this blogpost, spring is upon us in Switzerland – although the weather doesn’t seem very convinced about this yet. It’s a time, where everything starts to bloom, something I appreciate very much. All the vibrant colors and sweet scents in the air 🥰 Most of my images with flowers are close-ups. And so in this blogpost that’s what it is all about: Beautiful soft close-ups of spring flowers, maybe a couple of words of context, but mainly images I like. You, dear reader, will hopefully like them too.
If you like this kind of content, you may also enjoy my blogpost about Magnolia Flowers during Snowfall. And if you are interested to learn how I shoot those images, you will like my blogpost how to photograph flower close-ups where you’ll get to know my workflow and can learn about technical aspects.
Wild Garlic
I’ll start with wild garlic which is not only a very nice ingredient (wild garlic pesto anyone?), but also pretty to look at when in full bloom. Its latin name “Allium ursinum” as well as the German version “Bärlauch” indicate that bears like the plant very much. Often, you don’t find just one plant, but hundreds of them covering the entire ground. We have a forest nearby which we can reach in about 20 minutes on foot, and every year for a few weeks, you can find tons of wild garlic there.
Peonies
I find peonies particularly beautiful flowers. The colors are vibrant and their flowers are very “full” – for lack of a better term. There is a park in Basel, where you can find many different variants.
Lavender
Lavender Flowers are not very big, but there are plenty of them. And their scent attracts many insects, which makes it easier to photograph bees surrounding them. Besides that, I know the plant mainly from its use in food and cosmetics.
Other Close Ups
Two more close up images of flowers, the left one is some kind of rose, unfortunately I don’t know what kind of flower the right one is. My name for it is flower-ball 🙂
Echinacea
Echinacea flowers are one of a kind. They are fairly big, and the center is rather hard and has pointy edges. There is a very small patch next to a street on my way to work.
Colorful Gardens
While images of single flowers are beautiful, whole color palettes can be found when photographing a flower garden. The three images below were taken on the same day in a very small patch within the Merian Gardens in Basel (homepage in German only). Next to the green foliage, we can find deep saturated blues, yellows, pink and reds.
Grasses
But not only flowers can make beautiful subjects. Also all kinds of grasses open up possibilities to produce soft and dreamy scenes. As with many images above, the very shallow depth of field supports the mood.
Vegetables
Also a vegetable garden can offer great opportunities. The first image is what I believe to the kale, and I find the way the light brushes across it’s leaves beautiful. The middle Image I’m not sure whether this is a vegetable or not, but the plant still has very interesting shape and color. Last but not least the third is an image of cabbage, where I played around with some photoshop filters to accentuate the circular theme emerging from the shape and the leaves.
Leafs
Last but certainly not least: leafs can make for interesting scenes too. Unfortunately I don’t know what plants these belong to (maybe you do, let me know in the comments!). The first image is a focus stack of multiple images to get a sharpness through almost the whole scene. This let’s you appreciate every detail of the leaves and the water droplets on them. The second image is more abstract due to it’s very shallow depth of field. I like the color and resulting shapes.
Conclusion
While I do not see flowers as my main subject matter, I was surprised to find that many images in my catalogue. Hopefully you enjoyed these images, and maybe feel compelled to take some on your own. I for my part will certainly continue to do so.
Hallo Theodor, deine Blumen- und Pflanzenfotos sind wirklich sehr schön. Tolle Farben und eine ruhige, angenehme Atmosphäre. Die soften Hintergründe gefallen mir auch sehr gut. Der Fokus ist klar und es gibt keine Ablenkung vom Hauptmotiv. Liebe Grüsse, Nadia
Vielen lieben Dank Nadia, freut mich sehr. Ich werde sicher weiterhin solche Bilder machen.