Mindful Garden Photography

With our phones in hand, taking photographs in our gardens has never been easier. We take photos of plants for a number of reasons, from the pleasurable to the practical. Drawn in by the beauty of a flowering plant, the majesty of a towering tree, or the whimsy of an unusual mushroom, it's easy to snap several photos just for enjoyment. Photos are a great way to chronicle trips to botanical gardens and other outdoor adventures. A photo garden journal makes tracking the bloom time of the flowers in your garden or recording the progress of a vegetable garden quick and easy. Snapping a picture of an unfamiliar plant, then later uploading it to a plant ID app like Seek by iNaturalist or PlantSnap, can be a great way to learn its identity. While visiting a botanical garden, taking a photo of a plant you are interested in can help you remember it when you return home. From there, you can research the plant and see if it would be a fit for your garden. Wondering if that emerging spring plant is the penstemon you planted last year or a random weed? A quick photo and another visit to the plant ID app, and you can learn the answer.

These are all great uses of photography in the garden, but using photography in a different way can add another level of enjoyment and pleasure to your garden. Use your camera lens to help you observe what you are photographing. Be mindful of what is around you. Instead of quickly snapping a photo and moving on, take several photos with intention. Being intentional can invite us to take a closer look, observing not just the flowers or leaves, but other things as well: shimmering seeds of butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) that seem to dance in the breeze before they are lifted airborne; An iridescent sweat bee that is foraging on bright yellow evening-primrose (Oenothera biennis) flowers. Before you know it, what would have been a couple of quick pictures can turn into fifteen minutes of watching the variety of bumble bees and butterflies moving from one monarda flower (Monarda fistulosa) to another.

As you use photography in a more intentional way, you can slow down and take time to carefully frame the picture on the screen, observing what you see. Use the camera's zoom features to magnify certain characteristics that you find interesting. What you discover might surprise you. For example, with closer observation, you may find that something as ordinary as a dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is more complex than you ever imagined. What at first glance may appear as a lawn full of weeds, with intentional photography, becomes something else entirely.  You may notice that over 100 slender, bright yellow ray petals or florets are clustered together to form one daisy-like flower; the tips of the flowers are not pointed or rounded but rather are blunt with several narrow fringe-like projections; each ray floret has a tubular yellow stamen with a forked tip, each side ending in a curlicue, beckoning visiting bees with the lure of pollen.

When garden exploration takes you away from your own yard, take this photography technique with you. Perhaps on a walk through the woods, you find a rhododendron (Rhododendron catawbiense) growing in a bit of dappled shade. You may be familiar with its purple flowers and glossy leaves, and in the past, you may have clicked a quick picture and continued on. It is a "walk" after all. Consider instead intentionally photographing the purple flowers and see if you notice something new. Notice that several individual flowers form what appear as large blooms at the end of the branches. Each funnel-shaped flower has five petals with frilly edges and ten stamens. Surprisingly, the petals are not solid purple. Instead, the upper petal of each flower has brownish-yellow spots, like a smattering of freckles. You may also become aware of other things like the chattering of a squirrel and, without the crunch of your footballs, the trill of bird song.

In the fast-paced world we live in, viewing your garden through the lens of your camera can be an invitation to slow down. You may find yourself lingering in your garden and exploring the plants in a whole new way.