Garden Photography – What to Shoot in Early Spring

If you are anything like me once the first signs of spring arrive you can’t wait to get out with the camera and visit some gardens. But if daffodils aren’t your thing and it’s too early for tulips you may well find yourself thinking there won’t be anything to shoot

.There is always something interesting to be found on a visit to a garden, here are my top five tips for what to shoot on a garden visit in late March.

1. New Growth – nothing says spring like new growth, look for tiny buds, flowers about to unfurl, the earliest of early blossoms. Some might take a little hunting to spot and you may attract some strange looks as you try to get a close up of a little bud that most people won’t have spotted but it’s worth taking some time to hunt out the first signs of growth.2. Old Growth – yes it may be very dead but that doesn’t mean that some of last years growth won’t have a beauty all of it’s own! (Tip – changing your shooting angle in a garden can drastically change the background and allow you to create very different images in one location.)3. Indoor Spaces – Many larger gardens often have an orangery or greenhouse that you can shoot inside, they may only have greenery inside but you can play around with the light and warm up a little at the same time.4. Details – signposts, plant labels, tree trunks, natural patterns, leaves, shadows….. Think beyond the obvious and there are endless possibilities.5. Early spring flowers – It’s not all daffodils in spring….. Camellia, Hellebore and Anemone are amongst other early flowers, it’s worth checking with any gardens you plan to visit whether they have anything that flowers in spring, but don’t worry if they don’t, the other four suggestions will give you plenty to be shooting.And of course there’s no reason you can’t photograph the daffodils if you feel inspired by them, I love a vase of daffs on my kitchen windowsill but they aren’t a flower that I feel the urge to photograph every spring.

All of the images in this post were taken with the Lensbaby Velvet 85, click here for details of Lensbaby Training days and keep a look out for details of summer garden photography workshops!