Spring is finally arriving – it’s time for macro flower photography!


[singlepic id=1853 w=320 h=240 float=left]Spring feels very late this year. In recent years the snowdrops in our garden have started to flower in mid-late January. This year it’s almost two months later.

But now that the snowdrops are well and truly out – and nearly being overtaken by later flowering plants such as crocuses and even the first signs of daffoldils, this weekend was finally a good chance to play with some macro flower photography.

And snowdrops are a good test for budding (sorry – couldn’t resist that one!) macro flower photographers as they are tricky little things to photograph. Not only do you have the usual focus-critical problems of macro photography, but snowdrops are white – which always adds difficulty to getting a correct exposure – tend to hide in darker corners, are small, and tend to be grouped in awkward clumps.

So how to get better results when doing macro flower photography – especially when photographing snowdrops? Well, based on attempts a few years when I didn’t get this right, and this year getting much better results I’ve put together a small tutorial on how to improve your macro flower photography, using the humble but pretty snowdrop as an example.