Many of us enjoy taking pictures of our flowers and gardens. But have you ever considered recording the beauty of your plants using something besides a camera?
Your typical flatbed scanner can show off botanicals in a really interesting way. When selecting pieces to scan bear in mind the coverage area of your scanner. Letter size, or 8.5 x 11 is common and plenty large enough for many leaves, flowers, grasses, etc. Use a high enough resolution to allow you to print onto some nice paper, and voila, you’ve made art. Leaving the top of the scanner open in a dark room will give you a dramatic black background. Or try propping a white or colored sheet above your plant material – I’ve even seen fabric prints used to add pattern to the background.
In this example, I scanned peonies at different stages, using a small box to surround and support the flower head. Now’s the time to visually preserve that last perfect tomato, seedpods, leaves as they turn colors – you get the idea.