Why Take Garden Photos?Record Keeping
Taking pictures of your flower and vegetable gardens can help you keep records of what you grew and where you grew it. Many gardeners practice some form of crop rotation, being especially careful not to plant the same vegetables in the same location year after year. A photo or two can be a big help in keeping track of where you planted your tomatoes the previous season. Digital photos are especially helpful, since you can store them on your computer, label them, and click on the photo’s “properties” to see exactly when the photo was taken. A photo might also be a good reminder next year if you planted some things too close together this year.ID that Bug or Disease
The old cliche that a picture is worth a thousand words is certainly true when it comes to identifying pests, damage from pests, or disease symptoms in the garden. One or two good photos can be compared to photos online to identify the pest or disease.Send Photos to Friends
Serious gardeners enjoy sharing their garden experiences with their gardening friends and extended family. Today’s digital technology makes it easy to capture the wonder and beauty of your garden and email or text it to a special friend.Garden Photographs as Art
Photos help us preserve the beauty of our gardens. Roses will fade, sunflowers will wither, and the visiting monarch butterfly will fly away… but great photos from the garden can last a lifetime. Digital photography enables us to take lots of pictures, edit and crop them, and print them on our computers or have them printed by professionals… at a fraction of the cost than we used to spend when all cameras had film!Garden Photographs as Gifts
A great photo from your garden or from a friend’s garden can make a wonderful gift, too. Online companies can help you turn a photo into a wonderful print for framing, or your shot can be used to decorate a tee shirt or a coffee mug. With a little help from online companies, a collection of garden photos can be used to make a very personalized calendar. Personal computer software also makes it possible for you to make your own greeting cards from garden photos.Digital Slide Shows
If you’ve had the opportunity to visit one of the great public gardens in the USA, you probably took a lot of pictures. You can post them on one of the photo-sharing websites and invite others to see them, or you can make your own digital slide show by loading the images onto your personal computer, tablet, or onto a digital picture frame. With additional equipment, like Apple TV, you can play the slide show through your TV.How to Take Better Garden PhotosEquipment
By far, the two most convenient types of cameras for garden photography are compact digital cameras and smartphone cameras. They’re easy to have on hand for that spontaneous opportunity, and you can take multiple shots without worrying about wasting film. Digital photos are also relatively easy to edit and crop, and they’re very easy – and affordable – to share.If you have a digital camera with interchangeable lenses, you can be even more creative and can expand your garden photo opportunities considerably. Telephoto lenses allow you to get close-up photos of birds and bees without scaring them away. And, telephoto lenses will allow you to narrow the depth of field of your photograph so that a single bloom or piece of fruit will more clearly be highlighted.Composition
By far, composition is the most important consideration when taking a photograph for any artistic use. Composition – the design of your photo – determines how the subject is framed and how other elements can be reduced or eliminated to avoid any distraction. Many of us can improve the composition of our photos by merely moving in closer to the central subject.With a little practice, you can learn to compose interesting photos by focusing on smaller elements or interesting patterns that you may have overlooked in the past. Many people claim that a developing interest in photography has helped them see the world in different ways.Distractions
As mentioned above, good photo composition enables us to eliminate distractions that would otherwise make a photo less attractive. If the objective is to highlight the beauty of a single rose bloom, try to avoid including any foliage that might have black spots or insect damage that could distract from the beauty of the bloom.Similarly, background buildings, tools, and people can distract from the intended focus of your photo.Light
All photographers become more aware of light, and its effect on their photos, as they develop their skills. Almost all garden photos are taken outdoors, with natural light as the source. Early morning and early evening light tends to be a little warmer and softer, while a bright afternoon sun might be a little harsh. But, any light condition can be used to make interesting photos, so long as you are aware of the effect of the light on your subject.With experience, photographers see what the camera sees… good shadows or bad shadows, depending on the desired effect. Backlighting a photo, where the subject is between you and light source, can also create dramatic and lovely photos. And, certain lighting conditions can allow you to photograph a garden element as a silhouette, purposefully focusing on the shape rather than color or depth of the subject.Depth of Field
Depth of field is simply how much of the photograph is sharply focused, and it is determined by the size of the aperture (or opening) of the lens. Most automatic cameras will strive for as much depth as possible; but, you can override the camera’s settings to reduce the depth of field in order to create more artistic results. While your eyes may be focused on a single bloom, remember that the camera may very well see all of the surrounding foliage as equally important. Get to know your camera’s settings and options to create more interesting photos.Focus
While slightly blurry or “soft” images may be very artistic (especially when photographing people), most photographers usually strive for well focused central subjects. Great in-focus shots are achieved by having as fast a shutter speed as possible, and holding the camera still when shooting. If possible, it will help to have something to lean on, or against, to reduce your body’s movement when pressing the shutter. Professionals will often use tripods or other tools to help keep the camera steady while shooting.Tip:
Instead of pressing or “punching” the shoot button, hold the button down for a second or two, focus on the subject, and then release the button. Your smartphone photos will be sharper and perhaps better composed as well.Where to Get Help to Become an Even Better PhotographerOf course you can take online courses, or enroll in an adult education program. You may be motivated to subscribe to a photo magazine for a while to learn more about techniques and equipment. A simple Google search on “photographing your garden” will lead to hundreds of suggestions for books or articles to read online.If you are interested in buying a book or two to add to your library, Photographing Your Garden by David Bjurstrom is a beautifully written and lavishly illustrated book that will help you become a better garden photographer.Garden photography, like gardening itself, is a wonderful lifelong journey, with lessons and surprises, frustrations and delights, and opportunities to learn and improve. Enjoy the journey.
Tips for Focusing Your Photographic Efforts on Your Garden
The Best Internet Marketing Training Program Online
Are you wondering what the best internet marketing training program online is? Well I have to say, being an internet marketing consultant, I’ve came across a wide variety of programs out there. I’ve being practicing online marketing since 2004, so I’ve seen the old school gurus, and the new school heroes of today’s current time. And I can honestly say, the program quality is VASTLY different.The old school internet marketing training programs aren’t as software and technologically driven as today’s programs are. Back in the day, you would learn hard hitting strategies that really improved your website sales immediately. I want to share a personal story about a free internet marketing program I came across while I was in college – and it changed my life completely.So I was in college trying my best to make money in between classes, and I was doing the direct linking method of marketing. Back then you had traditional pay per click advertising search engines such as Overture, MSN Adcenter, and Google AdWords. Those were the top 3 – before Yahoo and MSN (currently Bing) merged. So I was in college linking directly to my ugly sales letter page, and getting no results. Well actually, the only results I was getting was bad results.I read every single article you could think of, and I came across a guy named Terry Dean. I read his article, was intrigued, and saw a link for a free book he had. The book was called something like, “10 Quick And Easy Ways To Boost Your Website Sales In A Week” (or something like that). I read it, and it changed my entire marketing completely.1 week after implementing his ideas and applying changes to my website, I got my first 2 sales ever. I fell out of my chair. I couldn’t believe it. I said this “internet thing” is real and I wanted more. Now fast forward to this day of age and the internet marketing training that I see is ridiculous. Everybody has a new secret or a new technique. Everybody’s trying to get rich overnight WITHOUT a website.There are a lot of internet marketing training programs these days that teach people to get started with affiliate marketing and just “share” their link on Facebook, forums, and search engines. This doesn’t work, and the old school marketers look at these promotional tactics and authors as if they are scammers. Why do I use the word “scammer”? Well it’s simple.Everywhere you go, everyone has a “new” way of doing something. Everything has to be faster, better, and more supreme than the proven way of making money. This is why so many people fail, because they think they can just put up a website, put their link into an autoblaster, and get rich overnight. It doesn’t work like that. Even worst is when people join an affiliate network, sign up to promote a particular product, and then just blast their affiliate link all over the place.And yes, there are high priced internet marketing training programs that advise this kind of marketing. It’s frightening isn’t it? It makes new age marketers like myself look bad and frowned upon, because my methods work, and it doesn’t take a genius to implement them and see results. Whenever you come across an internet marketing training program, you have to keep an eye out for a few things.You should look to see if the person has something free to offer you – to sample. This way you can “test drive” their expertise, and take a peek to see what they have to say. Then you should be able to take what you’ve learned from their free sample, and be able to apply it to your business. This is crucial, because just because you pay for an internet marketing program, doesn’t mean you’re going to learn the important stuff.There’s a well-known marketer online (who’s name I won’t disclose) who had an online business program. He had tons of testimonials from people who used his strategies and were making thousands of dollars per month. Some of them were making thousands of dollars per day. Actually… some of them were making over $10,000 per day – and they attributed their success to this guy’s course.So I bought the course for $39 (out of intrigue), and what did I find? I found a glorified sales pitch to purchase his $995 “advanced course” about making money on the internet. The material in the course that I bought only talked about why most people aren’t making money online, and how people promote products that they want to promote – INSTEAD of selling what people are looking for.Who doesn’t know that? What business owner would sell something that nobody desires? This is simple market research. So I bought the $39 course and was highly disappointed, and quite mad because of the testimonials that I saw that were associated with this course. So these are some of the games and gimmicks some of the new age “gurus” like to play in order to boost their bank account, and take advantage of people.So this was certainly not the best internet marketing training program I’ve seen. The old age internet marketer’s actually delivered when it came to value, and that is why they are legendary and are in the “hall of fame” of marketing. Nowadays you can go to YouTube and find over 100 gurus who have an internet marketing “success system” that is unique from everybody else’s. If you take a look at the ads, they all sound the same. And when you buy the products, most of them is just rehashed information.There are a lot internet marketing training programs on the internet, and you can’t trust just anybody. If you’re going to follow someone, make sure they have a real website – and not just an ugly affiliate link. Make sure they have an email newsletter that you can subscribe to and learn from. Make sure they have training articles and free materials that you can learn from. Make sure you can reach them by email and via social media. And make sure they are current and on top of the latest trends in the internet marketing industry.Be careful who you buy from, because you might end up disappointed like I was.
What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate
The results of this past election proved once again that the Democrats had a golden opportunity to capitalize on the failings of the Trump Presidency but, fell short of a nation wide mandate. A mandate to seize the gauntlet of the progressive movement that Senator Sanders through down a little over four years ago. The opportunities were there from the very beginning even before this pandemic struck. In their failing to educate the public of the consequences of continued Congressional gridlock, conservatism, and what National Economic Reform’s Ten Articles of Confederation would do led to the results that are playing out today.. More Congressional gridlock, more conservatism and more suffering of millions of Americans are the direct consequences of the Democrats failure to communicate and educate the public. Educate the public that a progressive agenda is necessary to pull the United States out of this Pandemic, and restore this nations health and vitality.
It was the DNC’s intent in this election to only focus on the Trump Administration. They failed to grasp the urgency of the times. They also failed to communicate with the public about the dire conditions millions have been and still are facing even before the Pandemic. The billions of dollars funneled into campaign coffers should have been used to educate the voting public that creating a unified coalition would bring sweeping reforms that are so desperately needed. The reality of what transpired in a year and a half of political campaigning those billions of dollars only created more animosity and division polarizing one extreme over another.
One can remember back in 1992 Ross Perot used his own funds to go on national TV to educate the public on the dire ramifications of not addressing our national debt. That same approach should have been used during this election cycle. By using the medium of television to communicate and educate the public is the most effective way in communicating and educating the public. Had the Biden campaign and the DNC used their resources in this way the results we ae seeing today would have not created the potential for more gridlock in our government. The opportunity was there to educate the public of safety protocols during the siege of this pandemic and how National Economic Reform’s Ten Articles of Confederation provides the necessary progressive reforms that will propel the United States out of the abyss of debt and restore our economy. Restoring our economy so that every American will have the means and the availability of financial and economic security.
The failure of the Democratic party since 2016 has been recruiting a Presidential Candidate who many felt was questionable and more conservative signals that the results of today has not met with the desired results the Democratic party wanted. Then again? By not fully communicating and not educating the public on the merits of a unified progressive platform has left the United States transfixed in our greatest divides since the Civil War. This writers support of Senator Bernie Sanders is well documented. Since 2015 he has laid the groundwork for progressive reforms. He also has the foundations on which these reforms can deliver the goods as they say. But, what did the DNC do, they purposely went out of their way to engineer a candidate who was more in tune with the status-quo of the DNC. They failed to communicate to the public in educating all of us on the ways our lives would be better served with a progressive agenda that was the benchmark of Senators Sanders Presidential campaign and his Our Revolution movement. And this is way there is still really no progress in creating a less toxic environment in Washington and around the country.