Landscape Design Through the Camera Lens

My landscape designs were created through the camera lens. What a discovery! I was thrilled to learn this about myself.

This realization came to me after completing a couple of projects and taking pictures for my website. The principles of videography that I had learned more than two decades earlier were strikingly evident in my clients' backyards. I thought that my video production career and the related skills had vanished years ago, serving no practical benefit today. And then with a simple realization, the moth balls were cleared away from the camera lens, so to speak. It's so rewarding to see the influences of a previous career being applied to one my greatest passions and burgeoning career.

The images of the landscapes were designed as if they were framed through the viewfinder of the camera. The shapes and flow of the landscape elements that created appeal within the physical space provided a similar layout that lent itself to intriguing pictures. The visual elements of foreground and background crossed over in both directions. What looked good in a natural, three dimensional space looked just as good digitally.

The following picture provides great example of flow or motion within the physical space. Notice the pleasing curvature of the walkway but at the same time how your attention is guided to the patio at the end of the walkway.

The picture below picture highlights the important contrast between foreground and background. The soft leaves of the ferns and the hosta soften the rigid form of the patio. More dramatically, the well-defined edges of fairy (particularly the wings) draws attention to the foreground while balancing the larger expanse of the patio in the background.

Photography can provide another great perspective about landscape design. Most good digital images are asymmetric and not perfectly centered. A shift of elements from center can bring great visual appeal to a landscape as well. A landscape does not have to be symmetrical, it can be balanced by the overall composition of plants.

So you're not a professional photographer or landscape designer. How does my "camera lens" discovery apply to you? If you're tackling a landscaping project on your own, you might want to start by taking pictures. Take pictures of other landscapes, those created by Mother Nature and those designed by man. Photograph trees, flowers, and even hardscapes. Observe of how these forms relate to one another. For instance, a cluster of leaves frame the foreground for a patio in the background.

A pattern of space movement and shape patterns will begin to emerge in the photos you take. These established patterns might influence how you frame pictures which, in turn, would influence how you design a landscape. This simple practice of taking pictures could form your perceptions of landscape.

I can't wait to build on my discovery of designing through the camera lens. What was innate to me through my work as a videographer will now become an overt practice of design. The similarities of what makes a good landscape and a good picture are so consistent and too important to ignore. So when you're planning a landscape project take some time to take pictures. Your final design might be enhanced through what you've seen through the camera lens.