Useful Photographic Tips From a Celebrated Garden Photographer.

Posted: January 13th, 2015


‘A day not in a garden is a day wasted’ says the celebrated garden photographer, Marianne Majerus. (www.mariannemajerus.com) and @MarianneMajeru5. What does it take to become one of the leading international garden photographers I recently asked Marianne? ‘The more you look, the more you see different angles’ was her deceptively simple answer.

Over the years, Marianne has honed art of ‘looking’ to a tee as a brief glance at her Wikipedia entry testifies. It is enough to send one reeling such is the extent of her success: numerous books, including one on ‘Highgrove: A Garden Celebrated’ in 2014, endless photography awards including in 2011 ‘Garden Photographer of the Year from the British Garden Media Guild as well as winning First Prize in the ‘Garden Views’ category of the International Garden Photographer Year of the Year

Marianne Majerus -  'Looking'.

Marianne Majerus – ‘Looking’.

not to mention the literally thousands of magazine articles her photographs have illustrated including an wonderful article on our very garden in www.countrylifemagazine 14th November 2012.

The woodland garden at Doddington Place, Kent.

The woodland garden at Doddington Place, Kent.

A path in the woodland garden at Doddington Place, Kent.

A path in the woodland garden at Doddington Place, Kent.

We love the pictures so much that we have them framed in our tearoom for all our visitors to enjoy.

Evening sun across tulip patterre, view to house at Doddington Place, Kent.

Evening sun across tulip patterre, view to house at Doddington Place, Kent.

Born in Luxembourg Marianne became interested in photography from a young age. ‘I was given a camera for my first communion, from that moment on I was hooked’. She was also ‘mad keen on English literature’ and came to England to study at Essex University before going onto study economics at the University of East Anglia.

‘Photographing gardens is a form of addiction. The real challenge is when you go to a garden that at first seems a bit boring but almost as you are wanting to leave it reveals itself. It is your own failure to see. Any garden is  very interesting.’ How right she is.  We all should take heed.

Marianne told http://www.middlesizedgarden.co.uk/9-tips-for-great-winter-garden-photographs-even-if-you’ve-only-got-a-phone that she was ‘A premature baby which affected my sight, so how things look is very precious to me’.

Perennial border, Actaea simplex Atropurpurea Group, grasses, sedum, persicaria, International Garden Photographer of the Year IGPOTU Award 2010, Layered Landscape: a Moment Captured.

Perennial border, Actaea simplex Atropurpurea Group, grasses, sedum, persicaria, International Garden Photographer of the Year IGPOTU Award 2010, Layered Landscape: a Moment Captured.

‘Train yourself to look at the light. Photography is completely addictive. I am always going on to the next high, trying to convey the concept of the garden and the life of the plants in it.  Photography is not just a formal exercise it is a spiritual experience and a kind of meditation.  To stand and stare at nature is a privilege’.

 

Echinops exaltatus, Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea 'Transparent'

Echinops exaltatus, Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea ‘Transparent’

What have you been doing today asked Marianne’s husband one evening ‘I have spent all day photographing one tree’. ‘There are endless ways of looking at a tree following the light around’.

Marianne’s website www.mariannemajerus.com is totally enthralling if like me you love drooling over garden photography. It is also a highly useful for ideas. All the images have been painstakingly filed in sensible categories such as ‘Garden Elements’, ‘Foliage’, ‘Edibles’, ‘Exotic Gardens’, ‘Tiny and Courtyard Gardens’. There is also an extraordinarily impressive index for example ‘A’ begins with the following: Aloysia, Albicans, Alexandre Girault, Alderley Grange and so it goes on.

Do have a look.