2 Capture the beauty of frozen flowers

Shoot floral subjects in a whole new way, by freezing arrangements in water and photographing the results. Niamh Cottle shows you how it’s done

Flowers are a very popular subject to photograph, and for good reason – the huge variety of types makes for incredible and colourful images. However, I wanted to adapt the concept of just taking photographs of flowers using macro techniques, and get more hands-on with my subjects instead.

The leading photographer Rankin recently published An Exploding World, a book featuring images of flowers that he set on fire. This really challenges the traditional ways of flower photography, and I wondered how else it could be done. In this tutorial, I will share one of the approaches that have produced great results for me – freezing flowers and then photographing them. Recently, I have noticed lots of images of freezing flowers trending on Instagram, with many users of the photo-sharing platform getting quite destructive with their flowers, and consequently showing them in a completely different light. I’ll show you how to experiment further using different types of water and seeing what effect this has on the process. Then I’ll take you through the different types of lighting you can use, and the techniques involved.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Digital camera Macro lens Off-camera flash Reflector Distilled water Tap water Containers, such as cake tins Flowers Freezer Time: 2-3 hours (min)