Flowers in the garden, April 2023

Using a ring flash in dentistry was second nature. Having learnt how to photograph the teeth and other structures around the mouth, macro was second nature. There were two good mentors to my macro photography. A medical photographer at Wordsley hospital. I can not remember her name and Wordsley hospital is no more. However she instilled a discipline and love of macro photography. Then there was Mike Sharland at Birmingham Dental School. He set up your camera and showed you how to gently rock back and forth using manual focus. The settings were Manual Flash half a second, aperture f/22, shutter speed 1/200s and an ISO 100. These are your go to settings and then you can experiment from here.

Flowers in the garden, April 2023
Close up of a wild Daffodil.
Flowers in the garden, April 2023
Wild Daffodils
Flowers in the garden, April 2023
Hellebores.

Gardens are just great places for macro weather you want to photograph flowers or insects such as bees and butterflies. I dusted off my macro lens with ring flash and wandered around the garden. For this series of photographs, I find the way that the subject is illuminated and the background is dark attractive. There is little in the way of distracting background around. Hope you enjoy these photographs of flowers. By the way, if you are like me and do not know the name of the flowers then there is a very good app, PictureThis, that takes a picture and hey presto the name of the flower is revealed.

Flowers in the garden, April 2023
Daffodils and Hyacinths
Flowers in the garden, April 2023
Common Hyacinth.
Flowers in the garden, April 2023
Grape hyacinth.
Flowers in the garden, April 2023
Forget me not (Siberian bugloss)

Finally a big shout out to @hortihenleygardening for their work in my garden.

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St Paul's Church, Birmingham, Spring 2023

St Paul’s church is situated in the Jewellery quarter and is a picturesque escape from the busy city centre which is only a stone’s throw away.  The square has so much character and is always a delight to visit.  I was dropping off my picture with the RBSA gallery and happened to have half an hour to spare.  I wandered around the perimeter of the square.  Immediately I saw that there were some early displays of daffodils on the east side of the square.  The picture of the daffodils with the church in the background is one that I have tried before.  This time the picture caught the imagination of social media.  The image was featured in England’s Big Picture and Independent Birmingham Instagram and Twitter pages.  

St Paul's Church, Birmingham, Spring 2023
The church interior with the central picture of the Conversion of Saint Paul.

As I walked around to the church entrance, I noticed that it was open and so I ventured inside.  I have been inside a few times before but never with my camera.  The sun was streaming in through the windows making a lovely scene of shadows and light.  The pictures of the church, which is a grade I listed building, show the features.  The East window has a enamelled stained glass window depicting the Conversion of Saint Paul.  The organ has a long history including when it was built and a list of organists over the years.  The pews have doors to them and there is a sign indicating that Mathew Boulton had a pew in the Church as the photograph shows.  

St Paul's Church, Birmingham, Spring 2023
Mathew Boulton worshipped at Saint Paul’s Church
St Paul's Church, Birmingham, Spring 2023
The organ has a long history.

The Millennium window caught my eye. This was sponsored by the Birmingham Assay Office. There was a competition and the winner was Rachel Thomas with her stained glass window ‘The Angel’s Crucible’ based on Job 28.  

St Paul's Church, Birmingham, Spring 2023
The Millennium stained glass window is worth a visit in its own right.
St Paul's Church, Birmingham, Spring 2023
The splendid eagle lecture.
St Paul's Church, Birmingham, Spring 2023
Beautiful light inside the church.

There is much much more including the Eagle pulpit, the organ with its history and the balcony surrounding the inside view. There is so much to write about and once you have looked at the photographs then be sure to visit the webpages of the church and more about the history. I will leave you with a few photographs of the outside of the church including the resident pigeons.

St Paul's Church, Birmingham, Spring 2023
This couple is walking past the church towards the Jam House onto the skyscrapers of Snowhill
St Paul's Church, Birmingham, Spring 2023
The residents of St Paul’s Church and Square.
St Paul's Church, Birmingham, Spring 2023
A view of the church in-between the trees.

During the weeks of lockdown, the garden flowers and blossom start to look very attractive objects to photograph. luckily I have my macro 100mm and ring flash to take pictures. I have also experimented with different views of the flowers from the more traditional look to close up macro. I have also looked at different lighting approaches. Here are a few of my pictures taken in my garden during April 2020 lockdown.

Dragon head flowers
This was a stacked picture of 6 photographs
Star Tulip
Magnolia Blossom
The colour purple
Dandelion close up
….but the flowers have a limited life