A tribute to beautiful images of flowers that always grace the pages of Alice's blog Lingered Upon. It's been a quiet few weeks for me since the trip to France and Portugal in the beginning of the month. So let's just look like lilies.

When I first started photography in 2006, I studied a lot of images from books and Flickr. One of my favourite images to look at were those of flowers. I spent hours in my neighbor's garden, rolling in the dirt, photographing her flowers. By the way, my mother was never too pleased with me coming home with stained jeans every time. 

Flowers are relatively easy subjects to come by and photograph - after all, they don't complain or get camera shy. Here are a few general rules of thumb for photographing flowers: 

The vibrant colors and intricate details of flora are best captured in a soft light. As usual, avoid harsh direct sunlight and look for soft shades. I shot these images at the Toronto Flower Market on a overcast day. The heavy clouds provided a great softener for the light and didn't produce any shadows. To perserve the original colors of the flowers, photograph them in neutral or natural light. For this reason, I tend to avoid the warm or cool tinted lights of flower shops and default to photographing outdoors. 

Aperture controls how much lights the lens lets in. A wide aperture lets in more light than a narrow aperture; wide aperture also produces a blur between foreground and background. For flowers, as is with shooting macro photography, leave your aperture wide open. This creates a long depth of field and highlights the subject of your photograph. 

How to photograph flowers