In my workshops, I often give an exercise on perspective. Participants spend at least 20 minutes observing a subject and then take a minimum of 24 shots, from multiple angles. The intention is to show that there are many ways of seeing something. Some possibilities are not even imagined until we start, but if we stick with it long enough and move past the point of boredom, we’ll always find something new.

At this time of year in my part of the world, there are many pictures online of flowers blooming. How many ways can there be to photograph a flower? Photographer Anne McKinnell asks this question in her article, How to Photograph Flowers. She in turn was inspired by Alex Wild (One Flower 16 Ways).

I decided to do this exercise with a single peony flower. I started last week when I photographed the bud that you see above. It was the one in my peony bushes that I knew would bloom first. After being out of town for four days, I returned to find the bushes in full bloom. That first peony bloom was already past its peak.
 

 

  
I’ve been having some trouble with my camera recently, and when I went out to photograph the flower, I couldn’t change the aperture. This limitation forced me to move around more. Finally, I gave up on my camera and used my iPhone instead. At one point, I tried the slow shutter app on the phone.
  

  
The photographs, seen together, do show the many different sides of a single subject.
  

 

 

I hope you’ll try this with your favourite flower.