I’m sharing two views of the same plants growing in a long border beside the Kitchen Garden at Hampton Court Palace. Their moods are quite different.
If I asked you to guess when each of them was taken, would you be fairly confident or not?
When we take pictures, we have choices and it’s funny how striking the effects of these can be. One picture is more commonplace but both versions have their strengths. Setting aside the difference of lighting and composition, the taut echinops flowers growing among diffuse allium seed heads would make a good ‘compare and contrast’ exercise.
The blue of the echinops is more striking in the second shot and they seem more floriferous, but the echinops in the first image seem to have more power within the scene. They tower. When I look at the second picture, my imagination turns the flowers into something less imperious, almost with their hands up in surrender. I suppose that’s an effect of the angle.
The second picture lacks the … (to be continued) effect of the top one, created by the glow of flowers glimpsed further up the border.
Both were taken within one minute of each other, at 18.35 and 18.36 (the second was actually first). Though I clearly remember taking them, with just an idea, a turn and a step or two between them, I still find their differences surprising.
The top shot shows the effect of backlighting; the second is under the soft, direct, even light of a summer evening. In this steady, revealing light, we see everything at once which means that our minds have little curiosity gap to fill. The contrasty backlighting is harder to process. It triggers feelings that seem to pre-date us. What’s hiding in the shadows? We may have some sense of awe.
It may be a daft question, but which is the ‘true’, most accurate scene? Neither? Both, and a myriad more that I did not capture?
How much we experience in a garden where our eyes, feet and mind can turn and play at will. How little of this we typically can share, try as we might. Here, by posting two moments, I’m trying to give a sense of the gap.
Susan Rushton 
You demonstrate the impact of lighting
Thanks, Derrick.
How interesting! I would have guessed these were taken much more than a second apart! I like the drama of the first but also the stronger blues in the second, so it’s hard for me to pick a favourite 😀
It was actually a minute, but I find it surprising too and I was there!
Oh yes, a minute – but even so!
An interesting point. Taking photos for the blog can be so frustrating for me as I don’t have your skills. Some plants photograph better than others, but some amazing plants look unintersting in my photos. I have an Indigofera pendula which stops people in their tracks, but photos taken from all angles, taken at different times of day make it look dull and weedy. And then to add drama as you have done in your first shot is quite beyond me.
I agree that some plants are much more photogenic than others and some plant colours are harder too. I was inhibited from taking pictures almost entirely for many years by comparing my pictures unfavourably with other people’s. One of my earliest posts was about that. What success I do have is down to persistence – I keep trying! I take a lot of pictures that I delete. For example, your recent Calceolaria picture knocks the socks off the ones I tried to take a couple of weeks ago of the same plant.
oh thank you, that certainly is a compliment coming from you.