Gardens have featured in works by all sorts of artists for many years – and  photography has been no exception to the variety of artistic diversity offered by plants. However,  photographing flora and fauna is a very specialised field – to succeed in this very competitive sector of  the stock photo market you have to not only possess an in-depth technical photographic knowledge, but also how to identify plant species and their correct Latin names. For the rest of us less green-fingered photographers, plants and their environments can provide us with some opportunities to capture beauty. Gardening – like photography – inevitably comes down to personal taste, so visiting a well-planned garden can teach us how to use colour, when to be subtle – and not!

This morning I had an early morning two-hour photo assignment in Colchester and – once I had finished – the day was my own, so I visited the Beth Chatto Garden at Elmstead Market. What a treat to the eyes – and camera – to simply meander around the five-acre garden. Beth Chatto is known as a gardener’s gardener and you can see why – this dame and her team know how to use form and colour to show plants off at their best. The lakeside view photo posted here, which I took this morning, is an example of how using vibrant colours subtly can make even the most straightforward images look impressive.