Photographs capture one precious frame of life. The viewer does not know what happened before or after the moment captured in the image, so the photographer's job is to impart motion and emotion into the photo. Your daylily photos can come to life with a few new thoughts! Shown in this post is H. 'Skinwalker,' a Stout Silver Medal winning daylily hybridized by Ned Roberts. Registered as an 8.5" diploid spider, it is very photogenic! I don't grow it myself, but I always seem to notice it "performing" on garden tours all over the country. Motion in daylily photos is a challenge and in my world, it is created by considering two other characteristics - balance and composition. I am not focusing on the motion of the flower in the photo, but motion in the PHOTO ITSELF.
I should say that I am a casual photographer, with a mid-level point and shoot camera. I'm not a hardware expert, nor do I have any formal photography training, so I can only tell you I love the camera I have right now after much trial and error with other point and shoot models. I find it is has been very accurate for color interpretation. It's the Sony Cybershot DSC-H20. Regardless of what camera you have, size and cost mean nothing if you do not know how to set up your eye to take a good photo. Great photographers can pick up a $10 disposable camera and produce a few good shots because they know how to "set up" a good photo! When snapping a photo, I ask myself two questions: One, What is the flower looking at? I think of the daylily bloom's face just as I do a humans face in my photos. The flowers filaments are its eyes...where is it looking? Is there another bloom or something else in the photo facing a complementary or opposing direction? Remember, I'm trying to tell a story with this photo...what is in this moment that is worth looking at?Second, Where do I want the photos main focus point to be? Sometimes it is not the center of the photo, and I make sure my focus indicators on my camera are keyed in to this spot before I snap the photo. (the focus indicators are those gird-lines that I see when I press my picture taking button down half-way.)
The best photography hint anyone ever gave me is this: if you want a photo that stands out from the crowd, do something unusual while taking it. If you stand upright, point your lens outward and simply snap a straight photo, you cannot expect too many unique results. This method also causes you to see things in a new perspective. If you are getting strange looks from lying on the ground or stretching weirdly to get just the right shot, you are probably on the right track to getting a unique photo.Anyone can take a daylily mugshot, and not everyone does that well.
Stretch your imagination.
See them differently.
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