Flower Photographer

Close-Up of Lenten Rose
Photographic Print
By Clive Nichols

“People chuckle sometimes when I tell them I am a flower photographer and that I have just spent the day shooting plant photographs. They seem unaware that to take a great flower photograph requires quite as much skill, passion and commitment as taking portrait photographs of people. Plants are fragile, ephemeral and often not as photogenic as they first appear.” –Clive Nichols

Nichols is an accomplished botanical photographer, and stands at the helm of a thriving photography business in England. He also runs several workshops for the Royal Horticultural Society, and is a judge for the organization’s annual “Garden Photographer of the Year” competition. A great part of Nichols’ success can be attributed to the respect he has for his subjects—he treats each flower as a portrait subject, and always searches for the combination of lighting, wind, and distance that makes for a perfect photo.

Nichols has also stated that he looks for the “personality” and defining characteristic of each plant, and focuses his lens on that. In the case of this hellebore (also known as the “Lenten rose”), Nichols is interested in the bloom’s interestingly-shaped sepals and nectaries. With his close-up photo, Nichols also highlights the color contrast between the pale nectaries and the rosy, almost translucent sepals, and gives the viewer a concentrated look at the beauty found in nature.