Flowers are coming out

Taking a break from my virtual trip around the world by greeting cards as I have been distracted by the arrival of spring. With flowers starting to show their beauty, I thought I would talk about how to photograph them for best results.



Now you do not need an expensive DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera, you can do a lot with a point and shoot compact camera. With photography, it is about the person being able to visualize the image and how well they know the equipment they have. The photo below was taken with a point and shoot.



The most natural looking viewpoint for photographing flowers will often be from a low parallel position. This will mean that you will have to get down on the ground, so it might be a good idea not to wear your best clothes or you could take something to lie down on.



Now when you find a flower that you want to take a photo of you need to think if you want to show the flower in its environment or if you want to show the flower on its own. If it is the latter, you can do this in two ways, you can get in close and show the detail of the flower, or you can use a long focal lens with a shallow depth of field to through out of focus everything but the flower.



The light that you have will make or break any photo; photographers often talk about the quality of the light and will try to stay away from the midday sun. Apart from the angle of the light, you will also get softer shadows and the temperature of the light will give a warmer feel to the photo. To reduce the shadows further and to show more detail you can use a reflector to bounce light back on to the flower. If you do not have a reflector, you can make one from white card with aluminium foil on one side, this will give you a two strength reflector. If you have any brightly coloured clothing on this can bounce light on to the flower giving it a colour cast of your clothing.



Ok you now have that great photo in the bag so what now? Well have fun, move around the flower taking photos from different angles and view points, how about photographing the flower with the light coming from behind it so you can see the translucency of the flower.

Greece

This week I am in Greece, the birthplace of modern democracy. With a rich history going back thousands of years, Greece was the defender of Europe from eastern invasion many times, not lest in the famous battle in which just 300 Spartans held back a huge army of tens of thousands. Today Greece is invaded every year by hundreds of thousands of tourists, as it is a very popular holiday destination in the Mediterranean.



For me the only problem with Greece is that it has so much history and so many beautiful islands and villages that I am not likely to see them all. With a two week vacation each year it is going to take me a very long time. So I am happy that Greetings Cards Universe gives me the chance to see parts of Greece that I have not had time to visit my self.

Egypt

For my virtual visit today I am in Egypt. A country with a very long history that is the home to some of the world’s great man made structures from ancient times. It is sad that they have a tax that people have to pay when their house has been built, so people do not finish building their house making many towns look like one big building site. This gives you the surreal feeling that people’s homes are showing sympathy with the incomplete ancient structures.

Wales

On my virtual trip around the world my first stop is to Wales. Wales is a beautiful country with history going back thousands of years. It once held the seat of power for all of Britannia on the Isle of Anglesey. Today it is still a magical place, with mountains, forests to water falls and grottos. Human influence on the beautiful landscape can be see from the stone circles of the druids to Offa’s Dyke to many majestic castles.

From around the world

Cards can be sent for any number of things, from celebrating a birthday or wedding to just sending a note to say hi. You could do an imaginary trip around the world collecting cards from places that you would like to visit or maybe from places you have visited but when you were there you could not find a suitable card to remind you of that time. Have a look at the cards below and see if you can guess which I have been to.

We’ve moved

Over at Greeting Card Universe they produce real paper greeting cards for just about any occasion, they can do this because there are nearly 4,000 freelance artists from around the world that display their work on Greeting Cards Universe. With that many artists adding work day in day out you are bound to find a card that will suite your style and let you stand out from the usual card buying crowd. If by chance you do not find what you are looking for you can put out a request to the community of artists to for fill your needs. If you find a card that is almost perfect but not quite, you can always ask the artist to make some changes, there will be NO additional charge for this.