Time for some flower photography tips

Warmer days have finally come to El Paso, so it's time to think about doing some flower photography. Here is a short list of do's and don'ts that I go by.
 Don't photograph around noon. The light is too harsh and flat. I prefer directional light when I photograph just about anything, including flowers.


Don't try to do any flower photography when the wind is blowing. It's a sure recipe for frustration. Here in El Paso that can be a problem because we have high winds in the spring.


For my DSLRs, I use either my Sony camera with the really excellent Sigma 105mm macro.


Increasingly however, I use my Nikon DSLR with the Nikon 18-200mm lens and one of the extension tubes in my Kenko three-piece set. The Kenko set is really cool and works very well with all camera functions being available. I have a set for Nikon and Sony. The reason I use the D5000 and not the D90 is because the Nikon D5000 has that marvelous swivel LCD that let's me get in and do all sorts of weird angles and points of view. I can get down low without crawling along with the worms.
A really cool gadget to take along is the Seagull viewer. This cheap gadget is really cool for photographing small dogs, toddlers and flowers, to mention just a few subjects.


Take along a spray bottle of water for those cool "wet look" images and I also take along some color cardboard for background and for directing the light even more. I don't use flash because the onboard flash won't work when working really close and a second flash would require a third hand, which I don't have or the use of a tripod which I hate.


As always, I shoot in aperture priority mode and generally, with the lens wide open (smallest f number).


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