I love linking pictures to songs from my youth, and Talking Heads were a big influence on my musical tastes after seeing them back in 1978 at the then Manchester Polytechnic. Even more surprising was that the support band was Dire Straits—but I digress. The title of the song “(Nothing but) Flowers” ties in nicely with the following set of photographs.

I am not the best gardener, but I do enjoy taking pictures of flowers—both cultivated and wild varieties. With the fine weather, spring has arrived and many of the flowers in my garden are in full bloom. I was keen to take pictures of them but with a slight twist in composition. With photography, setting yourself a mini project is fun. My aim with this set of pictures was to complete a macro series looking closely at the flowers in my garden.

I have a 100mm Canon macro lens set up with a ring flash, and it works well on my Canon 5D Mk IV. I was taught by the best how to use ring flash photography for my dentistry work, and this Canon macro setup has served me well over the years. My settings for this series were aperture f/22, shutter speed 1/100 sec, and ISO 100. Flash power varied between 1/1 and ¼ depending on the available light. I prefer the manual flash setting for this work as I am able to control the amount of light on the subject.

Composition: I aimed to photograph the flowers in my garden from an above point of view. By firing the flash directly at the flower, I would illuminate the centre, with the light falling off around the edges to create a black vignette. The pictures are full of contrast, and the colours are vivid. I like the effect, and I used the circular design of the flowers to fill the square crop.

I enjoyed this experimental approach to using the ring flash in this way and appreciated the sharpness and contrast in the images. Maybe next time, I will look out for some small insects to interact with the flowers. Nature certainly knows how to put on a good show—with beautiful symmetry and geometric design.

These pictures were of my flowers taken in my back garden. I also mentioned that I enjoyed pictures of wildflower landscapes. Please visit my link below to see a beautiful poppy field in Kinver, Staffordshire.