One of the best things about the Minneapolis Home and Garden Show is the chance to learn from pros, covering everything from home decor to gardening. Michelle Mero Riedel, a regular contributor to Northern Gardener magazine, U of M Extension Master Gardener and professional photographer, is among the speakers at the garden stage this weekend. If you want to take better pictures of your garden, you won’t want to miss her talk at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

I had a chance to attend Michelle’s talk earlier. You’ll learn much more if you attend the talk, but here are three important tips for taking better garden photos that I learned.

Watch your light! You don’t need fancy strobes and lights to take better garden photos, but pay attention to the natural light available. Michelle likes to shoot on overcast but bright days because you have adequate light but not the extreme shadows that occur when the sun is shining brightly. The hour or two after sunrise and before sunset are also great times to take garden photos because the light is soft. Many gardens glow in what is called “the golden hour.”

Try different angles. Sometimes when I take a picture of a flower straight on, it looks like a mug shot. Michelle’s solution to that is to take photos from a variety of angles—from the side, from the back, with the flower angling across the photo. Interesting angles make for interesting shots.

Take lots of photos. One of the blessings of the digital age is the ability to take lots and lots of photos. You can always delete them. So take lots of pictures of the full garden, plant groupings, individual plants or individual blooms. Try lots of angles and options.

Michelle’s photo talk is one of many MSHS is sponsoring at the home and garden show. Here’s this weekend’s complete lineup. While you are at the show, be sure to stop by the MSHS booth (No. 1557 on the main floor) and check out the bulbs, hostas and other bare root plants we have for sale.

See you at the show!