6 Best Tips for Taking Great Photos of Bluebonnet Wildflowers

It’s a natural reaction when you see the beautiful fields of Texas bluebonnet wildflowers to want to capture the scene and share with others. We suspect an explosion of wildflowers is coming this spring in and around Marble Falls. Will you be ready?

Review our six photo taking tips below and then head out to any of our top spots near Gregg Ranch to capture the local magic that we’re surrounded by each spring.

1. Timing – When

The best time for outdoor photography is during the golden hours, the period of daytime shortly after sunrise or before sunset, when the daylight is redder and softer than when the sun is higher in the sky. If taking your photo of people with the sun in the background, use a flash to overpower the shadows on the faces of your subjects.

2. Eye Level

Get down so you are eye level with a group wildflowers, making them look more full and colorful. Avoid top-down shots of flowers or people. If taken from the top down, the flowers will look less vibrant and you’ll see the dirt and leaves as well. In windy weather, you’ll need a faster shutter speed to keep the picture from blurring and looking out of focus.

If kids and dogs are favorite subjects, bring your camera down to eye level as well. Taking your shots eye-to-eye connects viewers with the photograph in a personal way, bringing them to life.

3. Know your Device:

If using a camera, for more than one person, place your subjects front and back and adjust your depth of field to keep faces in focus. Increase the f-stop — the size of aperture on your lens — to increase your depth of field. More depth of field means more faces and flowers in focus.

For a smartphone camera, you will get a better picture with the subjects in the middle of the frame, side by side, rather than stacking them one behind the other, for more clearly focused faces.

4. Composition

Try to use the rule of thirds when taking photos. Look at the image in your viewfinder and divide it into thirds either from left to right or top to bottom. Place your subject, whether it’s a flower or a person, lined up with the area that is in the left or right third of the image.

If you don’t have a main subject, try rocks, wildlife, trees, other flowers, buildings, tractors, fences or whatever else provides a focus.

5. Lighting

It’s normally best to shoot with the sun behind you, but sometimes you can position yourself with the sun in front of you so it shines down at a 45-degree angle from behind the flowers. Then you can use a flash to front-light the subject, filling in the shadows to emphasize the detail and light.

If you are photographing people and the bright sun causes them to squint, have them close their eyes and listen as you count down from three to one. On one, have them open their eyes while you instantly take the photo. This can also work for people who close their eyes every time a picture is taken. Start with eyes closed then open on the count.

6. Share

Be sure to share your breathtaking views of the striking Texas bluebonnet flowers with others, whether on social media, by email or gifting them with prints!

Located in charming Marble Falls, Texas this 240-acre master-planned community is northwest of Austin and is anticipated to be home to approximately 700 single-family and 250 multi-family residences. A central community area with an outdoor pool, ramada, barbeque area, shaded play area and bocce ball and horseshoe pits are planned. Gregg Ranch outdoor amenities will also include 5.5 miles of jogging and biking trails throughout the community, plus a dog park. The community is conveniently located at the intersection of State Highways 281 and 71, and is a short drive to Lake Marble Falls, Lake LBJ and the famed Texas Lake and Hill Country. Visit http://greggranch.com/ to learn more.