My Photo Gallery: The Language of Flowers

I am on a mission. A mission to hone my photography skills. Truth be told, aside from the occasional food photography that I do for my blog, I don't really use my Canon 40D SLR camera for much else. My husband is the one who takes most of our holiday photos and so, over the years, I've become hopelessly reliant on him to fill our photo memoirs. I have my own darling little pink sony cybershot camera (a graduation present from Dad) that I use ALL the time but whenever I'm using that, getting technically good shots is the last thing on my mind  *grins sheepishly*

In the crusade to take my photography to the next level, I decided that I would start experimenting with different lens and settings of my SLR camera focussing chiefly on non-food related subjects. Flowers are the first thing that sprung to my mind when I thought of all the possible easy subjects to photograph. Since the brainwave to do a photo gallery series came to me while in India, all I had to do was step out of the house and into the garden and begin shooting.

With this post, I'm kickstarting the photo gallery series on my blog, showcasing my (somewhat amateurish) photography in the hope that as time goes by, I will improve and this segment will constantly serve as a main source of inspiration (fingers crossed). If there are any good photographers out there who happen to be reading this post right now, please do share your tips, tricks and suggestions regarding how I could better my efforts. 

Well then, let's begin the photo journey 😊

Bangalore

These photos were taken in the garden at my in-laws house in Bangalore. There weren't as many flowers as there usually is but I managed to capture a select few. Some of the hues were so vivid that believe it or not, I have not made any enhancement to the saturation of these photos. That is just how rich the colours of the flowers were.

In general, my knowledge with respect to gardening is quite abysmal. I can only recognise a few well known species of flowers and plants but I've still tried to provide the names of the flowers in this post (hope the information is accurate). In addition to the colorful flora, my MILs garden also has a patch of colocasia leaves (kesuvina soppu), curry leaves, other generic greens but I didn't photograph them. Aside from the flowers, you can catch a glimpse of some fruit and veg.

Let the garden tour begin....

This beautiful melange of red and yellow is a banana flower. I dig the colour combination.

A glossy pink anthurium

Pretty pink periwinkle flowers. These flowers belong to the Catharanthus genus of flowering plants with Catharanthus. puscilius native to India and Sri Lanka. 

The english name of this flower is Ixora. In kannada we call it kepala pushpa and it is also known as the thetti flower. You will commonly see it used as a pooja flower in temples especially in Kerala. 

This is a variety of red cactus flower. It is quite common and I've seen it in the homes of many family and friends. 

A speckled pink variant of the same flower

Did you catch sight of the green limes growing on the tree?

A simple white rose. A thing of beauty is a joy forever, isn't it?

Budding pomegranates. Our resident garden squirrel gets these before we do!


 Mysore

These photos were taken at my (parents) home in Mysore. The garden keeps evolving every time I'm home so it is always interesting to see what is new. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the garden had many plants in common with what I saw at home in Bangalore. 

While I was photographing, I really did miss Polo. If he were around, I'm sure he would come scampering behind me, his sharp eyes filled with curiosity, wondering what in the world I'm doing. He never fancied cameras coz he probably considered it as some sort of weapon. Before his passing, he was partly responsible for annihilating patches of the lawn and stretches of shrubs but since then, the garden has flourished and it looks quite tranquil. The area next to his kennel has been transformed into a thriving patch of colocasia leaves. My mum also grows curry leaves and a few other greens which she uses for her cooking every now and then.

Let's take a look around the garden, shall we?

A lovely yellow button rose

A pink and white button rose. Don't you love the colour gradient?

Look familiar? The pink speckled cactus flower.

This one must ring a bell too. The vivid red Ixora (kepala pushpa/ thetti flower).

This is a crape jasmine (in kannada, a variety of nandibatlu). These flowers adorn our driveway and look oh so dainty and pure. 

These short trees which look very much like Weeping Fig (thank you Sahana Bhat) line the entrance of our garden on the left and right-hand side. I think they are incredible green adornments to our garden. 

This palm plant has been around for as long as I remember. It sits smack in the middle of our lawn on the right-side of the driveway and it is quite a striking feature of our garden. 

I did a double-take when I saw this plant. I love the striking pink in the leaves. This plant belongs to the Iresine genus of flowering plants in the amaranth family. It is also called as bloodleaf (so apt no?). 

This one's easy to identify isn't it? A yellow hibiscus bud. I wish I had caught it in full bloom. 

So that is a wrap of my first photo gallery series. I really enjoyed doing this short segment and I'm looking forward to experimenting on diverse subjects in the future and coming closer to being considered a decent photographer.

Which photo is your favourite? Please leave a comment and tell me about it 

Cheers,
Megha