Japanese Kerria

This plant has one redeeming value and that is it's bright yellow blooms in spring.  It blossoms around the same time as the dogwoods and redbuds.  The plant itself is not much to look at as you can tell if you imagine this photo without the blossoms.  The leaves are sparse and they grow on a stem with few branches.  They spread by sending out suckers underground so, if not controlled, they can become a pest.

I thought I would illustrate some photo tips using this plant as an example.  Some considerations pertain to DSLR cameras while others are general hints that can be used with any camera.  It also gives me an excuse to post more pictures of the blossoms since I had a hard time choosing which ones to post.

Here is what a single stem looks like.  While the flower is lovely, the bright areas of sky in the background detract from the image because they are too distracting.  So, the first suggestion is to be aware of what is in the background of your picture because it can easily rune (as Danny DeVito said a lot in some movie [Throw Momma from the Train?]) - it can rune your otherwise nice photo.

You would be surprised at how small a move can completely change the background when you are shooting something close up.  Sometimes, it is as little as a couple inches - although it does depend on how close you are to the subject.  I couldn't get rid of the white area altogether, but by angling the camera up and lowering the camera a couple of inches, I was able to minimize its effect.  I wanted to place the yellow flower against the complementary color of the sky.

Supposedly, one main subject is better than two because two causes your attention to compete between both of the subjects.  This rule is somewhat modified by where the subjects are placed in the composition.  If they are both at the same level, they will in all likelihood compete for attention.  If they are framed in more dynamic triangular shape, however, the effect is lessened.  Here, you can see the highly-serrated heart-shaped leaves of the Kerria.

Here, a single blossom takes center stage.  Sometimes the hardest aspect of taking close-up photos of flowers is the wind.  And I do mean wind.  You couldn't even call it a breeze the first time I went out to film them.  I had to give it up and come back another day.  It was just too windy.  But even on a day when there is not much more than a zephyr, keeping the photo sharp can be a problem.  Not because of film speed - you can take it in 1/1000th of a second if you want to.  But in that split second, the breeze will have moved the flower just enough to soften depth of field.

Dark background areas can be just as much a distraction as light areas.  The main reason I don't consider this photograph a success is because my eye keeps being drawn to the dark area at the bottom of the image.  One way to fix it would be to Photoshop it, replacing the dark area with a background similar to the upper portion of the photo.  Or - here's an novel idea - go back and get it right in-camera.