Flower Photography at Calgary's Parks by Fred Schact - The Canadian Nature Photographer

There are many things I enjoy about photography, and one of them is going to a park on a lazy Sunday morning to take flower pictures. Riley Park or Silver Springs Botanical Gardens are my two favorites. Both under ½ hr. drive from my house. Flowers and flower gardens can be found almost everywhere. In Calgary this goes for about 6 months of the year.

What I like about flowers are the many types, colours, shapes, and textures. Colour is what initially attracted me to flower photography. To be honest I am far from a flower person, so I just get my wife to identify most of them for me. The nice things about flower photography is that you can take your time; the subject never moves unless it’s windy and if the pictures don't turn out right, they never complain.

I'm a morning person so I leave the house around 7:00 to 8:00 am It is quiet with no, or very little, crowds. Shooting flowers in the early morning is generally a good time because there's lots of shade before the sun is high in the sky and in the summer it's not too hot outside. There's usually much less wind in the morning than in the afternoon.

I use a tripod if the light is poor (heavy overcast) or a dark area with a 2 second shutter delay and hand held otherwise. Auto focus is a must for me because of my poor eyesight. When I take flower pictures I like a DOF (Depth of Field), which covers the entire flower and surrounding leaves, blur of the background, and just a little on the soft side. With the 12-50 mm lens sometimes the bokeh does not happen. I tried to get close using close up filters, but with the narrow DOF it’s too much for my personal taste. So I just use my 12-50 lens which is good for 18 cm. I use spot focus and crop the image for extreme close up shots. I like shooting flowers in Vivid mode, it gives the flowers a little extra punch. Most of my flower shots are shot in jpg mode with light exposure tweaking in Elements 8. This works for me but your mileage may vary . I do a little indoor flower photography in the winter. But it’s just not the same as getting outdoors with lots of room and shooting in natural light.

My flower gear is my Olympus EM-10 with an Olympus 12-50 f 3.5 6.3 lens. Small and light, the camera and lens weight is 725 grams so I can carry this thing around on my neck all day. The 12-50 mm lens has a Macro button on the lens, which converts it to a 43mm or 86mm f6.0 Macro lens. The Olympus EM-10 has a Macro Mode like most cameras.

Fred Schacht’s Biography : Born in 1954. I live in Calgary AB. Canada.

I am a Geomatics Technologist and work for a small Survey Company in Calgary.
I am an amateur nature photographer. Landscapes/Scenery, Flowers, Bugs, Critters and Old Classic Cars.
It is strictly a hobby for me and a great way just to get out.

E-mail address: ferd@shaw.ca

Flower Photography at Calgary’s Parks

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