The old saying is April showers bring May flowers. Today I offer a couple tips to help you capture the beauty in those flowers.
1. Try to avoid full sun. Shooting in full, midday sunlight will produce high contrast photos with distracting shadows. If you have to shoot in these conditions, try to use a diffuser on your flower.
2. Use the Macro mode of your camera. Using Macro mode on your camera (or a dedicated macro lens) will let you get in close to capture some of the finer details of the flower. (example)
3. Change your f-stop. Adjusting your f-stop can make the difference between a single bloom in focus (example) with a small f-stop (large lens opening) to capturing a large variety of flowers in focus (example) with a large f-stop (small lens opening)
4. Get down low. Photographing your flowers at their height will present more pleasing images than shooting down on to them.
5. Get down really low. If you are shooting taller flowers, try to get down below the bloom and shoot up into the sky. This will frame your flower on a nice blue background, assuming your have a cloudless day. (example, shot with the camera almost on the ground)
As with all things photography, most importantly, have fun.
Until next time, happy shooting.