Spring: The Hardest Season to Photograph

 Here in Kentucky we experience four distinct seasons. I'd venture to guess that Spring is likely the season most look forward to. As a photographer I tend to photograph all year round, however, over the years I've come to the conclusion that the Spring season is the most difficult to capture. 

For some reason I've never been able to capture the impact of the Spring season very well. I've tried, but seems like I am always disappointed with the results. Spring is the kind of season your eyes see all kinds and splashes of color scattered across the landscape, but somehow, all of that color simply does not translate well into photographs.

 I've come to the conclusion that in order to photograph Spring you have to get in close to the subject and use depth of field and a blue sky to frame your subject. Sometimes getting in close means to get down low. There are a myriad of small spring flowers that cover the lawn and they bloom pretty much all through the season and well into the summer. But you gotta get right down on the ground to capture them in a way they do not become a cliched image.

This is where depth of field comes into play. By using a long lense and a large aperture, then focusing on the main subject, the foreground and background blur, and the small blooms suddenly become isolated to stand out against all of the clutter surrounding them.

If I were to collect all of my photographs by season, Spring would contain the fewest images. Most of my Spring images pretty much look the same with very few appearing as a unique image moment. Even so, as mentioned above, the most effective Spring images I've made tend to be close in shots. One good thing about the Spring season is how volatile the sky can become. Thunder storms roll across the landscape, cloud formations vary from high wispy clouds, to strong fluffy rolls, to dark and foreboding, to brilliantly lit filled with color. I believe the trick to photographing the Spring season is to focus on the weather using the blooming landscape as the accent.

Many times dark clouds infiltrate across the sky after the sun has warmed the earth and created a caldron mix of humidity and heat that feeds the stormy conditions. This will often lead to an end of the day breaking up of those clouds where the sun suddenly breaks through and lights up the sky. 

Some of the best combinations of conditions and light will occur during this time and provide for some interesting if not downright unusual lighting. 

There is one location not far from home where the Spring bloom offers a wonderful backdrop. It's a campground, near the lake, that is covered in dozens of mature dogwood trees accented with redbuds. The dogwoods create a canopy of white blooms that are simply spectacular and I will often visit the location in mid-April for that reason alone.

Dogwoods I believe make the best subjects. They come in white and various shades of pink and when planted together make a lovely sight. Closeup, dogwood blooms offer a powerful yet delicate blend of aesthetic nature at her best. You can as a photographer do so much with them and they convert well into black and white. 

If I were to choose a single Spring photograph I've made, one I actually like, it is the one I made some years ago of dogwood blooms growing next to a split rail fence. I added a bit of blur to the image yet focused on the central blooms and converted it into a black and white image. Compositionally it is strong and aesthetically is offers a blend of softness and an enduring Spring-like moodiness.

Spring can be an amazing time of year for the photographer and at the same time a challenging time. Capturing it as a single context of photographs is not easy, but when taking the time to actually see what is there and focusing on the details, well, the hardest season to photograph can become one of the most productive.