If you follow me on social media, chances are you’ve noticed I’ve been spending a lot more time photographing in my studio than I am in the local gardens. It’s been one of those summers. Between a badly sprained ankle, hotter than usual temperatures, and what feels like days of never-ending rain, the studio is where I’ve been able to photograph this summer.
All right – it’s not just my ankle and the weather that have had me in the studio. I’ve realized that I love photographing flowers in my studio. It allows my inner control freak to take charge and create my photographs.
So I decided to share some of my reasons for photographing in the studio with you today – in case any of your inner control freaks want to take charge in a similar manner.
When I’m photographing in my studio, I get to choose the flowers I want to photograph. I just head over to my local farmers markets or the local floral wholesaler and choose whatever flowers catch my fancy. This summer, I’ve been exploring the wonderful flowers from local flower farms. It’s amazing what beautiful flowers are being grown nearby and the wonderful combinations of flowers the famers put in their bouquets. Here’s a peek at some of the local flowers I bought from PlantMasters and The Petal Patch Flower Farm.
I can photograph in my studio any time I want to. I just have to head into my family room and everything is ready to go. I don’t have to check the weather, or wonder how the light will be at a botanical garden. Instead, I can create whatever kind of light I want to use for photographing the flowers.
I can get as close to the flowers as I want to. In my studio I can put my tripod right up against the table and use multiple extension tubes to get within inches of the flowers I’m photographing. At a garden, I’m limited by where the flowers are in the beds. This spray rose was about 2 inches across when fully open. In my studio I was able to get close enough to fill the frame of my camera with it to capture this image.
Blush Parasol Spray Rose © 2018 Patty Hankins
I can arrange the flowers however I want to. One of my favorite ways to photograph flowers is to bring a bunch of blossoms close to each other and look for patterns and textures in the petals. In my studio, I can arrange the flowers exactly how I want to – removing leaves or blossoms that aren’t in the right place. At the gardens, I’m not able to move the flowers into arrangements I want to photograph.
And only in my studio do I get the help of my studio assistants, Dusty, Jackson and Ansel. Dusty loves to curl up in her own personal sunbeam under the lights. While Jackson and Ansel always try to take time to stop and taste the flowers.
If you would like to learn to photograph flowers in a studio (and maybe get to work with my assistants), join me on August 25 for my Photographing Flowers in the workshop. You’ll get a chance to work with my strobes, my continuous lights, the various modifiers, and backgrounds I use in my studio. And I’ll make sure to have some wonderful local flowers available for you to photograph.
You can learn more about the workshop at https://
Be sure to register soon if you’d like to join me on August 25. The workshop is limited to four students – and two spaces are already filled.