Competition success
April 2019 A Year With My Camera student Anne McIntyre recently won the black and white category of International Garden Photographer of the Year (“IGPOTY”). I couldn’t be happier especially as she took the shot as part of the Creativity module of the AYWMC course.
Read her interview here.
What gear and lighting did you use?
I used a Canon 7D camera and a 100mm macro lens. I used a tripod and natural light. The light was great in the summer house because I had just painted it white. However, it’s in a shady corner of the garden so there is no direct sunlight. The flowers were from my allotment and I had decided to use them as the subject for my homework, as I love taking photos of flowers.
How did the shoot progress?
I had a cup of tea with me because I’ve learnt that doing the homework photo isn’t something to be rushed and a cup of tea is great while you reread the email lesson and work out what to do.
The task was to take a longer look at your subject. I think there were a number of options so I chose the take 20 photos from different perspectives. I used my phone so that I could easily move around and take the photos quickly. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this.
Having worried that a bunch of flowers was an unoriginal subject I had great fun moving around and thinking up different shots, far away/close up, above/below shots. None of this was at all exceptional but it was new for me and I felt pleased I had managed it. I realised some flowers had solid colour and a few were edged with colour. I picked out the most interesting ones and concentrated on those.
The front and back both looked good, so I used two, set up my camera on the tripod and positioned everything so that they filled the picture. I took a few at different f numbers because I find it easier to compare and decide which is best on the computer.
What was your approach to editing?
I didn’t particularly consider a black and white picture until I looked at them on the computer. They were such a wonderful bright pink they looked lovely in colour too. In fact, I printed out my quick set of photos and made a collage of them.
I used Lightroom to edit, following Emma’s explanations and tips. I increased the exposure even more and increased clarity and texture. I removed some spots of pollen, but there are so many I gave up and decided to leave them. I played about with contrast and to be honest, I had no idea what was right or wrong. I asked others on the A Year With My Camera app and I think the verdict was it depends on what you like, your own style.
I have always loved seeing the IGPOTY competition. I have entered before a few times and I was impressed with Emma’s winning photo. I felt encouraged by comments on the app and on Instagram so I thought there was no harm in having a go.
How did you feel when you heard you’d won?
I feel so proud that someone else, proper photographers, think my photo is good. I know I like my photos and my family all say they like them but it’s wonderful to know that other people like them too. Luckily I was sitting down when I read the email to say I had won. I jumped up and showed it to my husband and called my daughters to tell them too - we were all in the house because of this virus - so I had a big hug!
I am most excited about seeing a large print of the picture and I believe I get to meet other photographers at Kew. What I have found most difficult about photography is to be creative and get all the technical stuff right at the same time. Sometimes I have a beautiful flower and I can take a photo but it just doesn’t look so amazing in the pictures. So, I will repeat what I did that time, take a cup of tea with me, take lots of quick photos and see if I can find its best side. And for anyone who finds flowers boring, concentrate of the thing you like looking at most and just keep taking pictures of that!
Find Anne on Instagram: @AnneJMacInty
Join A Year With My Camera
The creativity lesson Anne refers to comes in Part 4 of the A Year With My Camera course. In this lesson you are given a choice of three projects to try:
1. A time restriction: you must take a photograph every 5 minutes for an hour. Set an alarm, and you can spend no longer than 5 seconds looking for the image.
2. A subject restriction: pick one thing (a chair, a toy, a vegetable, not a person) and take 20 completely different portraits of it.
3. A kit restriction: what's the piece of kit you use least? Take it out and create 20 photos with it.
Anne was working on the second project when she took her prizewinning shot.
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