Once a month it gives me great pleasure to write and send out my special email newsletter, filled with floral photos, arty news and stories of my life as an artist to uplift and inspire. Knowing that I am going to send this special treat out each month ensures that I seek out creative and interesting experiences to share .
This month I reached a milestone when my 100th email subscriber signed on and today I am very excited to introduce you to Joanne Arseneault from Pickering in Canada who is a marvellous photographer and writes a fascinating blog, Floral Boom.
Joanne has kindly agreed to answer my curious questions and I am sure you will enjoy her responses.
Joanne, I could spend hours looking through your beautiful blog. Please tell me a little about Floral Boom?
Floral Boom is a blog site I created as a hobby back in the Summer of 2014 because of my love of photography and flowers.
It is to share my photos and fun and factual short stories on the internet, with like-minded viewers.
Your photography is superb, may I ask what you are using to take your photos?
Thank you! I am using a DSLR camera, Nikon D200 model, with a 60mm macro lens.
I noticed you have taken an excellent photo of a red rose. What tips could you share for photographing roses and in particular red roses?
Well, as my photography mentor, (a Digital Librarian at my local Pickering Public Library) would say…know your camera! This means that in order for my photography to improve exponentially, one must learn the craft. This includes understanding the basics of digital photography, which includes elements such as exposure, depth-of-field, metering mode, ISO, white balance, etc.
A tip for photographing roses/flowers -shoot in the mid-afternoon, or on a cloudy day to bring out the brightest colours. A super sunny day will wash out the colours and could over-expose the shot.
You are very knowledgeable about flowers, where do you find all your information and what is your garden like?
I use library books & Google to search for photos that look like mine to identify the flowers. I also research different websites to gather facts about the flowers I use on my blog, mixed in with my personal views on the subject. I do not have a garden in the home I live in now, so I photograph gardens in my neighbourhood, or at parks and conservatories/botanical gardens. (Joanne, certainly has a knack for container gardening as you can see from this photo)
Where did your love of flowers come from?
I grew up in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and always admired my father’s garden and the gardens in my neighbourhood. I have a fond memory of beautiful flowers and their wonderful scents from Nature.
What is your favourite flower and why?
I do love yellow roses, but my favourite is the Sunflower. It is such a bright, cheerful colourful flower & my father grew them in the garden, years ago.
If you were a flower what would you be?
The sunflower, it is a tall beautiful flower and it always turns it flower-head to face the sun (when it is growing)!
Thank you Joanne, it has been wonderful having as my guest here today!
So if you would like to spend some pleasant time admiring the wonders of Nature then pay a visit to:
floralbloom.com
Floral Boom on Facebook
Floral Boom on Twitter
On my latest perusal I marvelled over the Marble White Butterfly, the Blue Ballerina Hibiscus and a Sweet Lemonade Peony!
And if you are not already one of my valued email subscribers, please sign on below.