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.
