Spring is a great time to be alive, all that rebirth, it’s certainly time for some creativity! Here you’ll see the top ten creative spring photography images in the form of a gallery. The photos were exclusively taken in South Korea, a magical place during spring. So enjoy the show, and you’ll learn a little about the background to each image.
1 – Creative spring photography tiles
Blossom photos naturally lend themselves to detail photography. This is a bit of a cheat, as you’ll notice nine images being slipped into a top 10 list! The clue is in the title though, as this is a single image, composed of ten photos. There are lots of ways you can get creative with this type of image as well. Take a look at some of these ideas, and see how you can apply them to your work.
- Petal bed – Towards the end of the blossom season you’ll see lots of petals on the ground, they’ll often form a petal bed. Look for locations where this is particularly concentrated.
- Framed – Using an element in the background to frame an element in the foreground can work very nicely. In this case the setting sun is used to frame a clump of blossoms.
- Bokeh -Bokeh almost comes naturally to detail photos of flowers taken with a macro lens. Think about what you want to achieve with the bokeh though. What colour will it be, does it draw the eye more to your main subject?
- Macro – Choose a single flower and really get in close, flowers have a lot of beautiful detail that’s often missed.
- Harmony – Look at how similar colours mix together to create harmony in your image.
2 – On the tracks
There are lots of ways you can lead the eye into a photo, but one of the strongest of these is train tracks. You’ll need to do proper research before photographing a location like this, train tracks are dangerous and often out of bounds. These train tracks are located in Jinhae, and are safe to stand on since trains don’t use this track anymore. Arriving at dawn I was able to photograph this location without the crowds. Jinhae is the location of one of South Korea’s most famous blossom festivals.
3 – The lake Pagoda
The pagoda on a lake is one of the classic photos you can take in Asia. This location is beautiful year round, and will be worth a revisit at other times of the year. The location is Bomun lake near to Gyeongju, though you’re actually looking for a smaller pond a little to the side of the lake itself. You’ll see the tree on the left acts as a natural from for the pagoda in the background.
4 – Full speed to spring!
Photographing traffic light trails is a lot of fun, and with blossom tree’s line the roads they make a good subject. In this photo there is a pagoda in the background, which adds more interest to the photo. Disappointingly the pagoda is a hotel, so not incredibly cultural, but the design is nice. To get this photo you’ll need to wait not just for cars, but buses to drive past. The higher up lights in this photo are produced by vehicles that are taller, in this case buses.
5 – Alone in the crowd
You don’t have to use long exposure to take compelling creative spring photography. This photo uses simple composition and framing to create a strong image. The choice of processing this image in black and white enhanced the photo, and drew the eye more to the lone tree. Indeed lone trees on their own like this are a composition classic. The way the blossoms at the top of the photo frame that tree though, this is what gives the photo its strength.
6 – The fast track to spring
I wanted to capture a train with cherry blossoms in the same photo this year. I went to Jinhae and it didn’t happen, then onto Gyeongju and that was a tale of frustration as well. My home town in South Korea, which is Suncheon, happens to have a track near some blossoms however. I chose my spot and waited for the train to come. I was fortunate with the way the blossoms grew, as they frame the photo perfectly. Once the train came, it’s all about the moment of capture.
7 – Cherry blossom landscape
South Korea has some seriously impressive lines of cherry blossom trees, that doesn’t always come across in photos of blossom trees. In this photo you can see how the blossoms go on for miles. This photo is taken in the Jirisan mountain range near Hwagae, a famous location for the blossom trees in South Korea.
8 – Natural world
It wouldn’t be creative spring photography without at least one photo of the lensball would it? In this photo a new take on the lone tree photo has been applied. There are other elements that harmonize with the scene within the ball though. The green leaves in the foreground also suggest growth and spring, the compliment and enhance the photo. Want to learn more about lensball photography? You can do that now by purchasing globalise.
9 – The cherry blossom portrait
The classic of cherry blossom season, the cherry blossom portrait. I’m indebted a local friend who kindly modeled for me in this photo. Suncheon is blessed with some nice lines of blossom trees along the river. This photo was taken right at the end of the cherry blossom season, most of the petals fell that afternoon. Luckily for us that resulted in some nice petals falls during the photo session, and who doesn’t like falling petals in a photo!
10 – Spring light painting
The magic of the pixelstick, and some more great modeling with my friend resulted in this image. Another example of creative spring photography, and it doesn’t get more creative than light painting. The photo was taken in much the same location as the previous photo, the path provides an excellent leading line. The blue hour was chosen to take the photo. This allowed for dark enough conditions to light paint in, yet still enough light to see the blossoms on the trees.
Learn how to rotate the image within the ball through post processing! You can learn even more buy purchasing globalise.
Your creative spring photography
I hope you’re enjoying or have enjoyed spring, it’s a great time of year to be a photographer. What approach to photographing spring did you use? This series looks at cherry blossoms, did you photograph a different signal of the arrival of spring? How about some of the techniques used in this series, have you used any of them in your work? As always at creative photography school we’d love to see your images, and any thoughts or comments you have on the photos shown in this gallery.
