Competition success - IGPOTY
We are delighted that two previous A Year With My Camera students have had success in this year’s International Garden Photographer of the Year macro competition. Anne MacIntyre came 2nd and Ingeborg Hartgerink-Grandia was Commended. Both Anne and Inge have agreed to be interviewed for the AYWMC blog.
L: Ingeborg Hartgerink-Grandia (IHG), “You Can Leave Your Hat On” - Commended
R: Anne MacIntyre (AM), “Mountains of Tulip Petals” - 2nd place
How did you create your image?
IHG
The 'hat' image is actually part of a series about these leek flowers. I had forgotten about the flowers when a couple of days before the taking of the 'hat' image I noticed that the skin of the flowerheads had dried very much and was becoming semi-transparent showing the flowers in bud inside (see photo 2 below). Now I really wanted to see what they looked like in bloom! And seeing it two days later having burst out of its skin with its hat one was a lovely bonus.
I only took three shots, the difference being whether to show the whole stalk and hat or just a part (see photo 3 below for a whole portrait).
It was late in the afternoon when I noticed it, no direct sunlight, the flowers were in front of our fireplace and the background is the marble stone slab around the fireplace – late in the afternoon that is a place in the shadows.
The shot was handheld on a NikonD7000, ISO 1000, 1/60 sec, f/6.3, lens AF-S Nikkor 18-300mm zoom, on 300 mm. The resulting images were still a bit dark and the stone background with natural stains on it was a bit distracting so I lightened the background and gave the image a lighter vignette in PS Elements 13. I thought the resulting image was special, definitely had both the botanical feel and details I like and was kind of unique and funny as well, so it wasn't difficult to choose that one as one of my IGPOTY Macro Art entries.
AM
I took the photos of tulip petals after taking lots of the whole tulip. I was taking photos for fun and aiming for a beautiful individual tulip picture. Tulips are very photogenic, so there are masses of photos of them, I generally start off taking standard shots. Then I look at the individual flower in front of me and consider if there is anything particularly interesting or beautiful about it and concentrate on that.
This particular tulip had bright contrasting pink and green and it was a few days old so the petals fell off quickly. I didn't feel that I had managed to get a particularly good picture but the texture of the petals was so lovely I wondered about photographing them as a pile. The green reminded me of grass, and hills, so when I played with them I layered them this way. When I looked at the photos on the computer this one showed off the colours and texture best so I kept it and deleted lots of boring ones. I am actually more proud of the photo of the inside of another tulip (below left) because it was harder technically, maybe it is a bit unoriginal for a competition.
How did The Art of Flower Photography course help you to create your image? (if at all!)
IHG
Before The Art of Flower Photography most of my flower photos tended to be taken with a macro lens and with a very shallow DoF with the matching small area of focus, I did learn much from the first part of course regarding DoF and how to judge and calculate the best distance for a wider optimal focus area, and have started using my zoom lenses more for flower photography. Also learned to use a much higher ISO if necessary in lower daylight situations.
AM
The course on the photography of flowers helped me know the best settings for how much to have in focus (F7.1 here). I usually change the aperture and exposure to try something with almost everything in focus and then something with only a tiny bit in focus. I'm not so good at seeing which is best at the time but I can see on the computer later. I also now appreciate how easy it is to over expose white flowers so I err on the side of caution and slightly underexpose them which often looks lovely too and makes the background darker. It also gave me confidence to try a bit more editing and I use lots of tips you suggested.
Emma’s course, The Art of Flower Photography, runs once a year each spring.
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Have you entered competitions before? What advice do you have for first-timers?
IHG
This is the 6th year that I've entered the IGPOTY competition and every year, once entered, I suffer from imposter syndrome and doubt whether any of my entries will ever be good enough. In 2014 you could get critique for free on your entries (nowadays that costs 10 GBP per single image) and one advice I got then and have remembered since is to shoot tall flowers and plants in portrait format. My advice to first-timers is 'just do it', it gives you experience in following competition instructions, in critiquing and selecting your photographs and you never know, practice may make perfect :-)
AM
I probably had more time to look at my photos on my computer because of lockdown but I would have taken photos anyway. I felt more confident to have a go at the macro competition having won the black and white section! Entering a competition does help me be really critical of my work because as I look through my photos to see if there is anything I think might be good enough I notice flaws or maybe a slight out of focus or harsh lighting or all sorts of things. So, I then only end up with a handful of possibles which makes selection of a couple quite easy. Macro would be a great thing to try while you are stuck at home because close up photos just about anything can look so different to a standard photo.
Free beginner’s photography workshop
Emma’s flagship photography workshop, A Year With My Camera, is free via email for a whole year. Emma wrote it for beginners and if you join here you can get started today:
