The golden hours: garden photography with Clive Nichols

Garden photography is a specialised genre and requires an appreciation for the beauty of nature as well as a wealth of horticultural knowledge. For a garden photography business to thrive, it's also crucial to maintain multiple income streams, from editorial and private commissions to workshops and books, while maintaining a strong social media presence.

Clive Nichols has been a professional garden photographer for more than 30 years and has built a library of over 90,000 images. He has a number of regular clients in the UK, from editorial publications such as Country Life and The Sunday Times to organisations including The National Trust and the Royal Horticultural Society.

"The challenge is to be in the right place at the right time," says Clive. "Garden photography is unique because gardens and flowers change from day to day, and even within a day, unlike landscapes, which can be quite static. In a garden, you've got hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of different plants, so you're dealing with a much more complex and evolving organism. You're at the mercy of the weather and you're working within the limits of the garden as it has been planted. The reward is creating strong and memorable pictures from what can be a difficult subject."

So what does an average day involve for a garden photographer? Here, Clive talks about the kind of shoots he does, the kit he uses and how he maintains his business, as he takes us through one day in mid-spring in South East England.

5.45am: "I arrive at Pettifers. I've photographed this garden many times before, so I know exactly which parts will be lit by the early-morning sun. I get in position and wait for the sun to appear over the top of a nearby hill. Around five minutes later, the light's coming straight into the garden. There is only a very small window of opportunity when the light's at its best, so I have to work quickly. I usually work on my own, and as it's so early – and the UK is in lockdown due to Covid-19 – I don't see anyone else the whole time I'm there.

"Pettifers is relatively small, about 1.5 acres, but it's an amazing garden because it's so beautifully planted. The garden faces east, so it's great to photograph in the early morning and is perfect for backlit scenes. Using the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM and Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L III IS USM lenses, I look out for shots with a good balance of elements and including features such as topiary hedges, or whole borders. I also shoot close-ups of individual flowers using the Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM lens, which is perfect for plant portraits. A good plant portrait captures the personality and individuality of the subject. It's like photographing a person – ideally, you want to flatter the subject and bring out its form and texture.

"This shoot is one I've requested from the owner, rather than a commission, and I aim to use the images for stock, cards, calendars, books and social media. I often shoot gardens on spec and then try to sell the images to magazines or add them to my stock library. On this day the light is some of the best I've ever seen – a warm, golden glow that gives the garden incredible rich colours. The drop in pollution levels [as a result of the lockdown restrictions] seems to have resulted in a crisper, clearer light. I shoot everything as RAW files at ISO100 for the best quality results."

8am: "By this time on a late April morning the sun is too high and it loses the warmer, more golden hue. You also lose the low, raking light that gives a three-dimensional quality to the texture of hedges and lawns. So I return home for some breakfast, then start downloading the original pictures onto my computer and burn them to DVD as a backup. The DVD is then marked up with the location and date, and filed. Processing around 50 shots usually takes two or three hours. Afterwards, I email the best pictures to the garden's owners for their own use."

12pm: "Back at the office, I would normally be planning my regular workshops at locations including Kew Gardens in London, but they have been postponed until the pandemic is over. My office manager, Julie, is not working at the moment, but she would normally be processing invoices, placing features I've shot on spec with magazines and keeping our social media accounts up to date. Our Instagram account has over 73,000 followers. I had also planned to publish a book on English gardens later in the year, but that's also on hold."

"The gardens are lit by hazy sunlight filtered through light cloud. As the sun gets lower in the sky I move to different areas that are getting the best light, from the more formally planted borders of the kitchen garden to the stroll garden, which includes two ponds.

"For shots that include architectural elements such as the house itself, I use the three Canon tilt-shift lenses that I also carry in my kitbag: a Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, a Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II and a Canon TS-E 45mm f/2.8. They take a little longer to set up and use, but make a huge difference in correcting converging verticals, as well as being very crisp and giving amazing contrast."

8pm: "After covering all the areas I want to shoot, and with the last of the evening sunlight gone, I pack up my gear and set off. Both of today's shoots have been quite intense in terms of concentration and were also quite physical, because I had to move around quickly and get down low to the ground to shoot close-ups of flowers and plants.

"I have to work as much as possible during this period of sunny weather, but can only keep up this schedule for a few days before I need a couple of days' rest."

9pm: "I arrive home, download the images to DVD and have a quick bite to eat before relaxing, checking the weather forecast, then going to bed early – ready for another early-morning shoot the next day."