First Garden Visit of the Year

Sometime last year, around September I think, I found myself on a beach made of shells. The water lapped quietly over the pale shells and a soft silverly light glinted gently on the sea. My husband had wandered off exploring on his own leaving me and my camera, for twenty wonderful minutes I was lost in the joy of creating images. I pointed my camera at shells and sea and distant hills and I waved it around a little experimenting with ICM, I was happy with the images I saw on the back of my camera and I’d truly enjoyed my little pocket of creative time. A few days later we returned home, I copied the images onto my laptop and they linger there still, ignored and untouched. There’s nothing wrong with them, I just don’t care about them.

Since then I’ve thought a lot about my photography. That twenty minutes of joy was time well spent but ideally I’d like to care about the end result enough to edit the images – editing is an important and enjoyable part of my creative process, it’s where my vision comes alive. For this spring and summer I’ve decided that my photography time will be spent with flowers and gardens with one aim, to make images that make me happy.

Of course once I made this decision the weather conspired against me, March in the north west of England has been long, damp and various shades of grey. On Friday I decided enough was enough and took myself of to a garden despite the rain. The recent weather meant there are still lots of empty flower beds but the greenhouses made for some great photo opportunities, as well as keeping me dry.