Shot! Fifteen out of 15: Floral
By: Gary Marlowe
Tags: Photography, Flowers, Gardening

When you take as many photos as I do, the ones that tend to stand out are those that have something a little different about them, those that for some reason or another are out of the ordinary.

Usually, one sees a photo in isolation, left to judge it only by what information is contained within the frame. But photos are more than just a moment in time. In most cases the end result is governed by the circumstances presented to the photographer, meaning there’s often an untold story behind them, one that can make them even more interesting than just being another nice picture.

Choosing just fifteen from each of my key subject areas was never going to be easy and some personal favourites never made the cut.

Shooting flowers and gardens is of course something a lot of photographers do, some even do nothing else. But getting really interesting shots takes more than just pointing your camera at a beautiful flower or a nice garden. Anyone can do that. Especially if they’re at a world-class flower show like Chelsea or Hampton Court.

To do it well, you need to cultivate an ability to seek out only those that are a cut above and then figure out the best way to shoot them. As well as getting your angles right, the elements play a big part. The sun and the wind can all help make the difference between a beautiful image and a common or garden snap.

These then are the stories behind fifteen of my favourite floral images from 2015.

Spray! You don’t have to go to prestigious flower shows to get great floral shots. This stunning spray of tulips was actually taken outside a florists, The Flower Stand in Hove.

Time For Tea 1: For the last four years, one of the most interesting exhibits to shoot at the Chelsea Flower Show has been created by Interflora. Whilst they’ve never managed to deliver anything quite as brilliant as their 2011 Perspectives installation, their floral arrangements are amongst the best you’ll see at the show. As it’s impossible to get good shots of the installation in its entirety, I’ve always focused on the details of the display. This year’s Time For Tea was no different. By being creative with my angles, and isolating small sections, I came away with a range of very contemporary images.

Time For Tea 2: Another image from Interflora’s Chelsea display which always features unusual combinations of flowers in wonderful colours, artistically arranged against a clean white backdrop. I’m not interested in capturing the entirety, for me it’s all about isolating the details. All too often, the individual parts on their own make better photographs than what they are a part of.

The Telegraph Garden: My favourite show garden at this year’s Chelsea was designed by Marcus Barnett and inspired by the strong linear geometry of the De Stijl movement and especially of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. Bercause of their size, show gardens are difficult to capture in a single photograph, but this shot gives a pretty good impression of why this one won a Gold medal. Although why there wasn’t also a red and yellow cushion will always baffle me!

Sweet Surprise: At Chelsea, the RHS announce their plant of the year. Often, the winner underwhelms in terms of visual impact and more interesting examples appear amongst the nineteen runners-up. This year was no different, as this pink gerbera was hands down the best looking. Photographing it however was a real challenge, the plant wasn’t that big, the queues to see it were and I was shooting handheld, with the EM1’s in-camera macro. I have to confess, it looks a lot better here, than it does in reality. They say the camera never lies, but the reality is most images are just a tad economical with the truth!

In The Pink: Tulips have always been one of my favourite flowers to photograph and Bloms Blooms always have the best display of tulips at Chelsea. The Blom family should know what they’re doing, they’ve been breeding tulips since 1860! Getting good shots of them isn’t easy as you can’t go onto the stand and the lighting in the Great Pavilion is terrible. These were shot from above. The end result looks like they’ve beeen painted, rather than photographed.

A Trugmaker’s Garden: A trug is a traditional wooden basket used in gardening. Dating back to the 1820’s, they are still made in Sussex by a handful of craftsmen using willow and sweet chestnut. At this year’s Chelsea, trugs were celebrated with an artisan garden. It won a gold medal for Chelsea first-timers Serena Fremantle and Tina Vallis. This pastoral image is just a small detail from their gorgeous recreation of a trugmaker’s garden.

World Vision: So many show gardens at Chelsea and Hampton Court aim to tell a heartfelt story, often one related to some kind of charity or cause. This one by John Warland was no different, but to be honest it was the media, more than the message, that interested me. Floating in an ink black reflective pool were groups of cacti set in mirrored squares. It was as surreal as it was mesmerising. And, when you get your angles right, it made for a memorable image.

Spirit of the Aegean: Another geometric image, this time from Hampton Court. It’s a detail from Esra Parr’s gold-winning show garden for Noble Caledonia. There’s something creatively satisfying in finding a standalone image within a far larger garden. Once you’ve identified an interesting feature, it’s then all about working out how to shoot it in the most interesting way. Apart from the angles, I really like the reflection of the lavender in the rill.

The Camomile Lawn: I really liked Sarah Keyser’s first ever show garden, particularly her all white planting, set against white-painted timber. The curved lawn was camomile, rather than grass. The curve is what makes the image.

Sempervivum: Continuing the curved theme, this image is a detail of a pot on Rae Wilkinson’s Healing Urban Garden. Sempervivum is a succulent found in the mountainous regions of Southern Europe and on Mediterranean islands. The name translates as “always living” or the common name of live forever.

The Serenity Stone: A small detail from the Healing Urban Garden, designed by West Sussex garden designer Rae Wilkinson. Often, show gardens are filled with loads of different planting and a multitude of features, what works better in a single image is to isolate just a few of them: in this case, the mauve flowers, the grasses and the roundstone. How one frames those elements is what makes the picture.

Viridis: Coastal planting on Littlehampton’s newly-built riverside walkway. Despite some of the flowers having gone over, this one’s all about the colours and tones. What makes it though is the metal background. What happens in the background is as important as the subject.

Glorious Carnations: Just a few of the 35,000 red carnations (yes, 35,000 individual carnations!) that featured on the Qatar Flower Wall at this year’s Glorious Goodwood. Thousands photographed it, but I doubt any shot it like this.

Eryngium: Sea holly taken on Littlehampton’s riverside walkway. Another of my favourite plants to photograph. This would make a great album cover!

Behind the image: All these images were shot handheld with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and either the 12–40 2.8 Pro or the 75 1.8 lens, often using the camera’s built-in macro function and always with available light only.

Follow me on Twitter

See more of my images at 500px