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April 2011 Photographers Resource - Monthly Edition 88

Gardens, Flowers and Pinhole Photography

A Town Park in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Image taken with Nikon D300, with 18-200 VR lens @ 55mm, ISO 400, 1/160th, F20, EV -0.7

In This Issue:-

Editorial
Feature - Visiting Gardens
Photographic Feature - Pinhole Photography - and Pinhole Photography Day 24th April
Photographers Diary

April has a wealth of tradition and superstition and there is so much going on. We start off with April Fools Day on the 1st where many of us will probably succumb to the odd prank or two. This year is also the month, although a lot later than normal, that the Easter celebrations take place. On the 24th the English celebrate St Georges Day with pageants, parades and activities taking place throughout towns and villages across England and for this year only we have an additional bank/public holiday on the 29th for the Royal Wedding.

With the wedding in mind you might have thought we would have covered wedding photography this month, but no we are celebrating Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, which is normally held on the last Sunday of the month, but because of Easter they have extended it to a 9 day affair and you can take pictures from the 23rd April right through to the 1st of May. Our photographic feature this month is on Pinhole Photography and we have a whole section dedicated to this technique, see below for more details.

With spring and summer now close by many homosapiens and photographers start to venture outside, hopefully in the sunshine, but this is April so you could get the odd shower or two. April is the blooming month when many plants start to really take on vigour and push their way through the earth, showing off their splendour and colour, many trees start to shoot their new leaves and our countryside starts to really come alive again. There are many events and occasions which take place to celebrate different plants during April including:- the Blossom Trail with cascading colours of plum, damson and apple tree blossoms, Daffodil Sunday, Primrose Day, Fritillary Sunday, Spalding Tulip Parade, the Asparagus Festival, and flower shows including those at Cardiff and Harrogate. See the April dairy for details on all of these and more.

Town parks, woodlands and gardens will be starting to come to life with colour, form and structure all suitable for photographing, so our main feature this month is looking at Gardens and Flowers and how to go about photographing them to their full potential. It is time to get ready for the great spring expeditions to the many gardens around the country capturing their beauty and majesty. Perhaps after reading our feature below this will inspire you to go out and try out any new techniques you have learned. See below for more.

Of course gardens, parks and woodlands are also now filling with the sounds and activities of wildlife, and the wildlife piece below, together with Wildlife photography in April, should give you some idea of what to look out for this month, from the return of the puffins, the grace of the Osprey feeding on Loch Garten to the grass snake moving about beneath your feet in the woods, watch where you tread!

If gardens or wildlife aren't your thing but you still want to get out and about and photograph something different then our diary gives you a whole load of different ideas and below we detail some of these with some images to get you inspired and get out this spring.

Feature

Visiting Gardens

With spring now here and summer nearly upon us it is time for our parks, woodlands and gardens throughout the UK to blast into colour. So this month we are going to get you ready for the coming busy months in the nature calendar and take a look at Gardens and Garden Photography.

In the UK we love our gardens, even if we only live in a flat many of us will have a hanging basket, window box or small display of some type during the coming months. There are many gardens open to the public, we have over 800 listed within our listings on this website, and these are not just the large Botanic Gardens, or gardens of large houses open to the public, but many private individuals also open up their garden spaces for short periods each year to raise money for charity, such as those in the National Garden Scheme.

There are many different types and styles of garden throughout the UK, some being designed and landscaped either for practical reasons, such as kitchen gardens or herb gardens, but also for aesthetic reasons or in the past where those who had large houses or manors would show off by employing well known landscape designers of the day. We have listed around 60 types/styles, but there are probably more. For whatever reason the garden has been planted the result is that we have a wealth of gardens we can visit and this gives us many thousands of plants and miniature wildlife we can photograph.

A Garden Border

Most garden visits are carried out over the coming months as the colourful plants emerge from the ground starting off with many of the bulb plants, which have been hibernating under ground waiting to push through and inspire us again, such as Daffodils and Tulips during March and April, with Bluebells in our woodlands supplying blue carpets during May. Over this period bedding plants will have been planted and from May onwards will be starting to show off their many colours and shapes. Then in June after shooting up new bark and bites the many colourful combinations of roses will be blooming marvellous.

Garden Photography

In our introduction to Garden Photography

we link together a number of the articles, lists and guides within our Garden Section.

This is one area of photography where we can showcase a wide variety of skills that we already have, as well as use it to gain more experience and a greater number of skills, from showing how skilled we are at using the light and the correct Exposure,

using aids such as Light Cubes,

Filters,

and tripods, as well as macro techniques

for close-ups.

So what are the Essential Skills for Garden Photography. In this article we review some of the photographic skills you may need to get the picture you are looking for, and not only those that are needed at the point when we take the image, such as using fill flash and reflectors, depth of field, etc., but also other items such as time lapse photography, where we can take multiple images to show

A waterlilly in a Garden Pond

the rebirth of a plant. It also takes a brief look at those skills required when we get the images back to our digital darkroom, like removing people from our favourite shots. When in public gardens it is not always possible to wait for other visitors to get out of the way, so sometimes we have to do the best we can at that point and just like the artist remove the item when we get home. There are also some techniques that will both assist you to get more consistent results, such as setting the white balance using PRE to get true and the best colours we possibly can and these together with a number of other suggestions that may help are discussed in Garden Photography Essential Techniques.

Gardens come in all shapes and sizes, and being outside you also have variable weather and lighting conditions to contend with. In Limitations When Photographing Gardens we give you an idea of some of the limitations you might come across and how to resolve them. Of course the two main limitations we have when photographing a garden are what is going to be on show when you get to the garden and the weather/light conditions. We all know about the British seasons, sometimes getting 4 seasons in one day, and most gardens are in full bloom during spring and summer when the light should be better, but not always. The weather could be the opposite of what we want it to be, it could be cloudy, raining or in the case of the middle of the summer day, the sun too bright. So the importance of timing is looked at, in terms of the time of day, and our ability to make the most of the light we have available, by using methods of enhancing it like the use of fill flash and reflectors, and controlling the exposure. As well as this we also have the additional fact that some consider the best points in the day to photograph, early morning or early evening, the public place we are visiting is not open at these times, so it is even more important to have the necessary skills and knowledge to make the best of when we are visiting.

The Kitchen Garden at Forde Abbey, Somerset

Forde Abbey Gallery

As well as the flowers, plants and vegetable displays in gardens there is also an abundant supply of small wildlife feeding and sheltering on the plants. These include caterpillars underneath leaves fattening up ready to move on to the next stage in their life cycle, bees and butterflies feeding on the nectar but also in the same process fertilising the host plants in order that they may produce next years growth; to frogspawn and tadpoles in the pond, to flies skating on top of them, to dragonflies and damselflies flying above them and loads more. Wildlife in Your Garden highlights some of the insect and wildlife kingdom that you should look out for, in whatever environment you are in, the park, the woodland, and your own back garden.

If you have time on a visit and you won't get in the way of others then you could have a go at doing something different. So far we have concentrated mainly on the plants and wildlife in the garden, but of course you also have statues and other garden ornaments, ponds, waterfalls, and so much more. These all play their part in garden vista shots. Why not have a different challenge this year and have a go at taking a 3D garden photograph. In our 3D Section we cover how to go about taking a 3D image and what equipment you need to be able to achieve it. So why not have a read and have a go, you will be surprised at what you can do.

A Public Park in Oxford

Within our Garden Section there are links to more articles, as well as links to lists for specific garden types like Botanic Gardens, we also have lists of gardens broken down into county order and alphabetically, as well as links to many location guides giving more in depth details of what you will find at them. So from the 800+ gardens we have listed you can find something both local to you, or in an area of the UK you are intending to visit this year. Take a look and make a list of those that you intend to visit and photograph to increase your portfolio.

Once you have taken the photos and find you have some really great ones you could take a look at Uses of Garden Photography. In this article we take a look at how you can use your garden and plant photographs and also point out some ways you could earn an income from them, including possibly selling them to magazines, we have a list of garden specific magazines. In Garden Further Information and Books you will find website links to other useful resources and links to some books that may help you with both giving you inspiration as well as being able to identify what you are photographing.

Photographic Feature

Pinhole Photography

April 24th is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, and we are using this opportunity to tell you about another technique you could use to get a different sort of photograph, Pinhole Photography.

A bit of History first

This is a technique that has been used to capture an image using light for many thousands of years, in fact it is thought that pinhole cameras have been around for over 2,000 years. It is a method of photography without using a lens, a tiny hole replacing the lens on the camera. Initially it was used as a tool by painters, with upside down paintings of animals being found in ancient caves and then progressed on to be used by photographers. Today they are used more for fun, art and for science.

It is thought that the first pinhole photographs were produced in the 1850's by a Scottish Scientist, Sir David Brewster, which he used in a book he published in 1856, and there were others to follow. By the 1880's the impressionist movement in painting had an influence on photography, where the 'old school' wanted sharp focus images and the 'new school' (pictorialists) went for what they called the

Pinhole Picture taken at
Stanton Drew Stone Circle, Somerset

Stanton Drew Stone Circle - Pinhole Gallery

'atmospheric' look. In 1890 a pinhole photograph, 'An Old Farmstead', won the first award at the annual exhibition of the Photographic Society in London.

Pinhole cameras can be small or large and have been made out of sea shells, cereal boxes, coke cans, Pringle tubes, even rooms in large buildings and in many other forms. The largest recorded pinhole camera was built in the US and it's pinhole was 1/4 inch and it was set up to record an image 80 feet away using an exposure of 35 minutes. This gave a print measuring 108ft by 85ft that was processed in tanks the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Even as recent as 2008 NASA commissioned a dedicated visible light telescope designed for finding and photographing new planets using the pinhole technique.

Pinholes can also be found in nature such as the sea creature, Nautilus, they have no lens in their eyes. Each eye has an aperture which can be enlarged or shrunk and they function in the same way as a pinhole camera with water going through the pinhole. To find out more about the history of pinhole photography, take a look at Pinhole Cameras, this also explains how a pinhole camera works, and links to more pinhole information.

So what is a pinhole camera and can we use this technique on toady's modern digital cameras.

A pinhole camera is basically a device which is light-tight and has a very small hole in it opposite film, photographic paper or sensor to record the image seen. As light travels in straight lines, if you have a small enough hole that the light can get through and looking on a screen or surface in a darkened space, opposite an object, then on the surface you are looking at, you will see this object upside down in front of you, as shown in the image to the right. The smaller the hole, the dimmer and sharper the image.

It is still possible today to get a pinhole photograph and using your digital camera, and this is discussed in more detail in a pinhole for your DSLR. The article explains some of the kit and techniques you could use to have a go at creating your own pinhole image. If you look around the internet you will also come across

How the Pinhole works

some suppliers that make and supply pinhole adaptors for cameras like those found in pinholes from the Pinhole Factory and pinhole adaptors, which looks in more detail at how adaptors you can buy, work, as well as how to set up your camera to get the right exposures, and how using tube sets you can get additional focal lengths, therefore creating telephoto techniques.

Rather than buying adaptors already made you could of course have a go at creating your own pinhole kit to add to your camera. We have done this, and in Pinhole Kit MK3 you will find out how we went about this and in two further articles, we cover how we made adaptations to get a zoom/wide angle effect, and to simulate the rising front on a camera just as if you were using a Perspective Control lens.

Recently we decided to take a gallery completely using a pinhole and at the same time to also take a gallery with a second photographer/camera using a lens. An article, Taking a Pinhole Gallery looks at how this was done and the resulting gallery can be seen in Stanton Drew Stone Circle - Pinhole Gallery. As this article gives a practical overview of how the photographs were taken you may find this gives you all the information you need, especially if you also look at our other pinhole articles on how to create your own pinhole to be able to undertake your own gallery or perhaps photographs to submit as part of the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.

For more on pinhole photography, website links, books etc see Pinhole cameras - further information.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

The first Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day was held on 29th April 2001 when 291 people from 24 countries contributed images. By the second in 2002 this had increased to 903 images from contributors across 25 countries and it has become an annual event and gone on growing, when last year (2010) it had reached 3449 images from people in 70 countries submitting their work, 149 of these from the UK. For more on how you might take part then look at their website, where you will find some galleries of what was submitted last year and in previous years, these may give you some ideas and inspiration of what you could achieve if you had a go.

The annual Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is always the last Sunday of April, however this year it collides with Easter Sunday. You normally have to take the photograph on the exact day, but for this year only they are giving you longer to take your photograph and get it submitted, so you can take your photograph from 23rd April until the 1st of May, giving you more opportunities to have a go.

Final Point

You will notice that all the images within our articles and many of those within the galleries on the Worldwide Pinhole website are what is called soft focused or what some would term artistic, and all are small images. The soft focus effect is caused because there is no lens. They are shown small in size because the sensor used in modern digital cameras is small, and as you know when making an image larger the quality of it reduces, so for this reason pinhole images are better shown at the size they are taken.

If this has inspired you to have a go at some experimental photography, or even to take an image on the 24th and submit to www.pinholeday.org, then why not have a go using some of the techniques outlined in the articles in our Pinhole Photography Section.

The Photographers Diary

The May diary is now in the 'next month' slot with April moved to the 'this month'. Both months have a lot of opportunities for everyone. Some highlights for April that are of particular interest include:-

April is the start of the mass of spring/summer events that take place every year and there are many thousands going on around the UK that you can both visit, take part in or just be an observer or pop along to photograph. Some of these events are traditional such as Daffodil Sunday which takes place on the first Sunday in April, and was started by the Victorians, when families would pick daffodils from the gardens and take them along to local hospitals to give to the sick, we can't do this today as most hospitals will not now allow flowers on their wards. Maundy Thursday, is the day before Good Friday, when in England the monarch of the day handed out Maundy Money to the poor, today the Queen carries on the tradition but hands it to a selected group of pensioners. While on the 24th, England celebrates their patron saint with St Georges Day, and in some local communities celebrations of all different types will be taking place.

For lovers of horses the major events this month are the Grand National at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool on the 7th. Whilst starting on the 13th for 5 days is the Winter Dressage Championships at Hartpury in Gloucestershire, and also in Gloucestershire on the 21st is the Badminton Horse Trials, a 3 day event in the grounds of Badminton House.

Badminton Horse Trials, Gloucestershire Paul Woorich

With the weather getting warmer, there are more water based activities taking place, such as the Devizes to Westminster International Canoe race between the 22nd and 25th. This is a non stop marathon canoe race starting at Devizes in Wiltshire in the Kennet and Avon Canal and finishes 125 miles later on the River Thames at Westminster Bridge opposite the Houses of Parliament. The race can be completed in one continuous effort and elite crews can achieve this in 17 or 18 hours, or can be paddled over the four days.

The course starts on the Kennet and Avon Canal with over 50 locks, a long tunnel and competitors have to run for a mile at Crofton Locks, when at Reading the course goes onto the River Thames.

If the Royal Wedding is not your thing then on the 29th you could have a bank a holiday weekend break on the Isles of Scilly and watch the World Pilot Gig Championships take place. Or if you want a more slower pace then on the canals you could pop along to the IWA National Campaign Festival and see around 100 historic boats, take a boat trip and watch other water based activities. Or on the 30th you could go to Little Venice, no not in Europe but in London, and take in the IWA Canalway Cavalcade. A Boat rally and trade show including a pageant of decorated boats, procession of illuminated boats in the evening, boat handling competition, trade and craft show and musical entertainment.

World Pilot Gig Championships

Jeremy Pearson

Spalding Tulip Parade

Martin

This time of year nature is coming back to life and throughout the spring/summer months there are many events taking place, such as the RHS Flower Show in Cardiff this coming weekend, or on the 14th there is the Harrogate Spring Flower Show. The 17th of April is Fritillary Sunday in Ducklington, a small village in Oxfordshire and the 19th is Primrose Day. In Evesham, Worcestershire they hold the annual British Asparagus Festival which marks the start of the Asparagus season on the 23rd, and on the 30th the Spalding Tulip Parade in Lincolnshire takes place, when more than half a million tulip heads are individually pinned to floats and a parade of floats, dancers, carnival performers, marching bands takes place through the town centre from 2pm.
If you want something a bit more unusual then the UK doesn't disappoint. How about on the 22nd seeing how the competitors get on in the British and World Marble Championships in Crawley,

West Sussex. Or go and watch the Bacup Nutters Dance near Rochdale in Lancashire on the 23rd. While on the 25th you could visit Hallton in Leicestershire, where they hold the Bottle Kicking and Hare Pie Scramble, or Gawthorpe in Yorkshire, outside the Royal Oak, you could watch men and women take part in the World Coal Carrying Championships.

Don't forget we also have an extra bank/public holiday this month on Friday 29th April for the Royal marriage and together with May Day on the following Monday gives us all another long bank holiday weekend. As usual these public holidays don't see us sitting on our laurels and for many they don't even take it that easy, with competitive events taking place all over the country, such as on the 30th there is Jousting at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, while Weymouth in Dorset holds it's International Kite Festival on the beach, and Llandudno in North Wales has a Transport Festival combined with a Victorian Extravaganza and Urchfont near Devizes in Wiltshire have their annual Scarecrow Festival.

These are just some of the many items we have listed in this months diary, so take a look and find something to suit your interests, not forgetting to take a look at May as well to complete your second Bank Holiday line up.

Wildlife Photography In April

You are almost spoilt for choice this month as everything in the wildlife world starts to happen, bird song fills the air from the dawn chorus in the mornings to courtship and territorial displays throughout the day. In the plant world new leaves are appearing on trees and shrubs and fruit trees are filled with blossom.

In the Animal Kingdom

It is time for love and many species of mammal, bird, and insect whether large or small will be starting their mating rituals with courtship dances to attract their mates, or territorial displays to ward off competing males. There are two courtship displays that are worth looking out for this month, on water you have the Great Crested Grebes, who mirror each other in elaborate ballet type moves, often standing on the water. While on dry land is a bird whose numbers are dwindling, and can be found only in the pinewoods of Scotland, the Capercaillie. These birds are the largest grouse in the UK and can be over 4kg in weight, and a metre long. The males display in small clearings called lek's, where they fan out their tails, inflate their throats, and create a noise that no one has been able to explain, attempts include, drum roll, corks popping, gargling, tapping and even Asthmatic wheezing. These displays can become ferocious fights between males and can result in injury, the female eventually mating with her chosen male.

Capercaillie
Terje Asphaug

Also in the countryside you may start to hear the Cuckoo as they are looking out for the best host nest to lay their single egg, the unsuspecting host bird loosing some of their own offspring in the process to bring up the young of the cuckoo. Staying with birds and in Scotland, the Osprey will be nesting from this month, a UK hotspot for seeing them feed on water is at RSPB Loch Garten, in Abernathey, where on the Loch you may also see Goldeneyes displaying.

In woodlands you may also hear the Nightingale sing, or from a nearby badger sett see the first movements of the new young badgers, having been born underground during winter, they will be making their first visits above ground with Mum and Dad.

It is this month that those little comical birds with very large orange beaks, the Puffin, return to our shores and islands in order to get their nesting grounds ready for this years new brood. Their breeding season being

Grass Snake
Phil Parsons

April-September and a visit to their nesting grounds this month you will find they are clearing out their dens and putting in new bedding, as well as glimpsing them going out to sea to feed and returning to pair up. You can find some of their favourite nesting places by taking a look at our List of places in the UK where you can see Puffins, and if you fancy having a go at photographing them then take a look at How to photograph puffins for some helpful tips. A good place to see them is Skomer Island off the Pembrokeshire coastline.
In the insect and small animal world Bees and butterflies will now be seen in gardens and meadows foraging for food on nectar plants. Caterpillars for several varieties of butterfly can be discovered on the back of leaves. Frogspawn in ponds and rivers will be hatching into tadpoles to start the next part of their journey into frogs and toads. The sand lizard changes into its breeding colours and the grass snakes are amorous and in courtship with males following the females.

In the Plant World

This is the start of the blooming period, many of the bulbs will now be out such as crocuses and daffodils in gardens, woodlands, along roadsides, rivers and canals. Many trees will be out in blossom attracting bees and other pollinators to take their pollen prior to their green leaves emerging. The colourful blossom and sweet smelling scent of fruit trees will also be decorating our countryside and for the majority of April Worcestershire shows off their display by encouraging visitors to take their Blossom Trail which takes you through Evesham, Pershore and Broadway. This is the best time to see white plum and damson blossom, and a couple of weeks later the white and pink apple blossoms. There are coach tours, drive yourself car routes, and walks.

Marsh Marigolds will be flowering beside ponds and streams.

Marsh Marigolds Brian Pettinger

Primroses cluster in hedgerows and gardens while the other yellow flower, Cowslips start to appear on downlands as well as in fields, on the roadside and in meadows.
Also in some meadows Snakeshead Fritillaries start to appear, there are two good locations for seeing them. The North Meadow National Nature Reserve on the outskirts of Cricklade in Wiltshire, this is a 108 acre hay meadow and at its peak in mid April around one million blooms have been counted. It is a water meadow between the Rivers Thames and Churn and can be seen from footpaths. While the village of Ducklington in Oxfordshire holds an annual Fritillary Sunday Festival, this year on the 17th April, when it opens up a 10 acre meadow near the church to raise money for the church - see their 2010 programme here.
Within our woodlands Bluebells will be emerging through the woodland floors. The UK has 70% of the worlds population of Bluebells and they carpet the woodland floors throughout the UK. At this point it will only be their green shoots and leaves appearing as many will not be fully out in flower until next month. See our list of Bluebell locations to find out where you can photograph this abundant spring flower in the UK.

There is so much going on in nature this month take a look at Wildlife photography in April to see what else you should be looking out for.

Snakeshead Fritillary Miles Underwood