These are all photos of poppies but they have very different compositions:

A field of poppies.



A fuzzy poppy bud ready to burst.



A bee at work in a poppy flower.






This image consists of roughly 1/3 sky, 1/3 trees, and 1/3 grass.

This photo show the plant's remarkable symmetry.

Taking Great Garden Photos

Outdoor gardens serve up a visual feast of colors, forms, and phenomena. Inspired to try to capture the beauty and lush life of plants and their animate visitors, humans have long gazed at gardens, cameras in hand.

Observation is essential when maintaining a garden and it also increases understanding of and appreciation for the miracles of nature.  What better way to encourage close observation than to let kids explore and document their findings using a camera.

Of course, there's more to an accurate representation of a fascinating scene or object than "point and shoot." Often, first efforts at taking photos are disappointing because "it looked a lot better than this in real life!" Taking photos before and after some coaching can be helpful for budding shutterbugs, because they can literally see the evidence of their improved skills.

To help kids explore how our eyes take in scenes and begin to "think like a photographer," have them first spend some time sharpening their focus without using a camera. Give theme a cardboard frame at least 1 inch wide with an opening the size of a standard print photo (say, 4 by 6 inches). Have them search the garden for interesting scenes or objects and try looking at it through the frame. Ask them to note the difference in how the scene or object appears when limited by the opening in the cardboard. Encourage them to try shifting the field of view by moving closer to or further from the subject or moving the frame to include or exclude certain elements (e.g., shift so the camera "sees" only the butterfly garden bed and not the parked cars or buildings in the background). Suggest that they explore other aspects of the object or scene through their imaginary lenses. For instance, they might look at the same object from above or below, at an angle, or with a light shining from behind.

Technical nuts and bolts are the foundation of quality images, but the individual eye of the beholder is what makes a photo interesting, a medium for communicating mood and message. This framing exercise and discussion may naturally awaken this sense.

Considering Composition

Photographers suggest a few general rules for creating quality photos. Here are a few technical tips to pass along to your kids:

1. Avoid splitting an image right down the middle, either horizontally or vertically. Try to place the horizon, for example, about a third of the way down from the top of the photo or, if the sky is the focal point, then a third of the way up from the bottom.
   


2. The "rule of thirds" suggests that photographers imagine a tic-tac-toe grid laid over the frame, and to try locating the most important elements of the photo where the lines intersect rather than smack in the middle. Students can adjust the view through their cardboard frames to find the look they like best. If you're trying to capture a symmetrical image, such as the center of a daisy blossom or veins in a leaf, centering it in the frame enhances the symmetry.
   


3. Light intensity affects how colors appear. Harsh mid-day sun can wash out colors; morning and late afternoon or evening light is generally better. Mid-day on an overcast day produces more accurate colors in a photo.
   


4. Try to keep the sun behind you when you're taking outdoor photos. If you shoot toward the sun, your camera's shutter will close down, letting in less light, and the photo subjects will look dark. However, be sure your own shadow doesn't interfere with your photo! Try moving around your subject, positioning yourself so the light comes from different angles, and look for interesting shadows.
   


5. Consider the balance of light and dark in a photo. For example, a close-up of a light-colored flower against a backdrop of dark evergreens will jump off the page more than that same subject against a field of similar flowers.
   


6. When trying to capture action, such as birds, insects, or people in motion, place the subject towards one side of the frame with its direction of movement pointing to the center. This gives the moving object somewhere to "go." This may require you to make the subject of the photo smaller to allow it space in the frame.
   


7. Some automatic cameras won't focus on very close objects, so read the camera's instructions before taking close-up photos

Once kids have envisioned their photos and learned the basic mechanics of using the camera, send them out to snap away.  Create scrapbooks or websites to preserve and share special pictures. (See Making Field Journals.)

Courtesy the National Gardening Association's Kids Gardening Web site.