Last Year’s Gardens

I didn’t take my camera out much last year. When I did I found that (as has happened more frequently over the last few years) I thoroughly enjoyed that quiet time spent with my camera but I cared little about the resulting images. Not because there was anything wrong them, I just felt indifferent once I sat at my laptop to edit.

My favourite camera outing last year was a first time visit to Threave Gardens in Dumfries and Galloway. I spent a few happy hours wandering around, mostly ignoring the flowers but absorbed in the smaller details of the garden – the edges of leaves particularly caught my attention and I could have spent a whole day in the glasshouses. Once again I returned home, edited one or two images (the more conventional flowers) and ignored the rest.

I’ve recently been feeling a strong pull towards black & white images. I’ve always loved the simplicity of black and white and every few years I return to the question What if I only worked in black & white? I don’t think I would ever make that switch but that thought drew me back to last year’s gardens – what if they were black & white? I sat at my laptop, Lightroom open, and realised that I no longer felt indifferent to those garden images. I’d just needed to see them differently.