PHOTOGRAPH YOUR
LANDSCAPE PORTFOLIO

By Joelle Steele

A sales or presentation portfolio is one of the most effective sales and marketing tools your company can have since a visual presentation is always more effective than anything you or your salesperson can say to a prospective client. One picture is worth a thousand words and what you include in your portfolio will allow prospective clients to get an excellent perspective on what it is that your company provides in terms of the scope of the work, the range of plant and architectural materials, and the design itself.

WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH

Photographing every project may seem like the best way to build a portfolio, however, not every project may be representative of your best work. Try to evaluate your projects from a sales standpoint. Do you really want to do more jobs like that last one? If not, don't include it in your portfolio where prospective clients can see it and hire you to do a similar project for them.

Remember that your portfolio should capture the horticultural environment's impact on the overall interior design. The photographs should therefore emphasize the most attractive and interesting areas of a project. Selecting the appropriate areas to photograph will result in prospective clients being able to conceptualize the manner in which interiorscaping will impact on their own indoor environment.

Some of your projects will simply not lend themselves to being photographed. Perhaps the indoor plants look wonderful but the office is always a cluttered mess. Or maybe you waited too long to photograph a project which you no longer maintain and the client's latest maintenance service has butchered everything in sight. Timing and careful selection of a project will help you compile a collection of photographs that mirror your company's strengths in design, installation, and maintenance.

Look for projects which have some variety, not only in the plant material, but in the architectural, landscape architectural, or interior design detail as well. For example, look at the wall coverings, furnishings, window treatments, water features, stone work, patio areas, etc. They make a significant contribution to the overall appearance of the project and can therefore enhance the aesthetics of your portfolio.

Think about the various plantings in each project and try to visualize them from different angles. Do they accentuate and contribute to the entire horticultural environment or are they just isolated pieces of greenery in an otherwise drab and uninteresting showcase? We all have projects which are attractive but are not "special." You may want to photograph these mediocre projects, but remember that your portfolio is a sales tool, a representation of your talents, and you want to show off your very best abilities and design strengths.

VISIT THE SITE

Well before you photograph the site you should survey the area and determine which areas you want photographed and make note of any ideas you might have about specificfeatures you want included in or omitted from the shots. You need photos of what things are important to you in a particular project.

If you aren't a skilled photographer, just keep in mind that you will probably have to take a lot more photographs of each part of your project to be sure your composition will reflect positively on your work. When selecting areas to be photographed, include interesting architectural details which can help frame your pictures. Pay attention to backgrounds. The human eye sees only what it wants to see. The camera lens see exactly what is there, and if what is there is an ugly construction crane or a neighbor's yard full of "junk," it will become immortalized in your portfolio. On the other hand, you might want to take advantage of a particularly scenic background that contains a skyline or mountain range.

Be sure you shoot a variety of different areas — small offices, entry foyers, reception areas, patios, potted plants, flowering plants, trees, etc. Avoid putting plants in the dead center of all shots. Try to include a piece of artwork, statuary, or furniture that is particularly attractive or unusual and photograph it in relation to the foliage.

In areas that are not too exciting, but where the plants look particularly nice, or where an unusual specimen has been utilized, shoot the plant or entire planter box or bed for a purely "plant" picture. It's okay to have a few of these kinds of shots here and there in your portfolio as long as the majority of your photos reflect plants interacting with the decor and thus eliminate a monochromatic "green" portfolio. The same is true of container shots. It's okay to have a few close-ups of custom color or unusual decorative planters as long as they don't dominate your portfolio.

Unless you have brought some lighting equipment, long shot indoor photos that show row upon row of pothos atop cubicle dividers should be avoided. A few rows plus a floor plant or two, shot from an angle instead of straight on, is more attractive than the long shot which requires additional lighting in the more distant rows to be effective. Outdoors, lighting is best in the early morning and on slightly overcast days. Avoid shooting at noon or when the sun is strong.

OTHER TYPES OF PHOTOS

Besides photographs of your projects, your portfolio should include some or all of the following: design plans and architectural elevations; and product brochures indicating containers, statuary, irrigation systems, etc. If you have any work-in-progress or before/after photos they can also be helpful in illustrating the value of interior and exterior landscaping.

If you want to express other design options for your prospective clients but do not have any of your own projects to photograph which are representative of these styles, you can take photos from magazines that are reflective of those looks and mount them in your portfolio in a separate section. I have seen this done before and it is difficult to tell that they are not actual photographs when carefully trimmed and mounted. Do be ethical here though and don't try to pass these photos off as your own work.

ASSEMBLING YOUR PORTFOLIO

There are two kinds of portfolios: the traditional presentation binder in which your project photographs are neatly mounted and labeled, and the virtual portfolio that you create on your website for viewing on a laptop or large tablet when you meet with the client. How you arrange the items in either of these formats is key to their usefulness.

One presentation method that is great for limiting what a prospective client sees as far as plants and projects that are similar to what their environment will support, is to place the photos showing the indoor plants and projects with the lowest light levels first, gradually working up to photos of plants and projects with the highest light levels.

A portfolio is the only true representation of your work, short of driving a client around town for a guided tour of your installations -- in whatever condition they are currently in. By selecting the right projects you will be providing your sales and design staff with an indispensable presentation tool. And that's an excellent investment in the future success of your business.

PREPARING FOR THE SHOOT

Obtain Client Permission. Before you photograph anything, you must have the permission of your clients to be on their property at a certain and convenient time for them. They may want or need some time to make some preparations, such as cleanup of the yard. You will also need to schedule the shoot for a time that will result in the best lighting for your project.

Select the Right Time of Day. When photographing interiorscapes, the time of day can sometimes be critical, particularly in the case of sites that have large windows. With such locations, pick a time of day when the sun is not so low on the horizon that it sheds harsh light that reflects off everything in the room. With atriums the angle of light will be important and you will have to observe the time of day when the natural light is optimum for a shoot. If you are going to shoot outdoors, schedule it for the early morning just after sunrise when the colors are deepest, the earth is moist, and the air is clearest. Choose a blue-sky day or a slightly overcast sky.

Do A Quick Clean-Up. If you maintain the interiorscape or landscape, have your maintenance workers clean up and trim things up before the day you plan to shoot. Hose down all masonry and be sure that it is perfectly clean so that all of the architectural details will be clear. Fresh flowers, cut flower arrangements, and annuals lend a colorful touch to portfolios and you should try to shoot them on a day when they are newly installed or bring them with you on the day of the shoot. You can then leave them behind with the client as a "thank you" for letting you come in an photograph everything. When photographing outdoors, be sure that dead leaves are swept up, brown leaves are removed, withered flowers are plucked off.

Be On Site With A Maintenance Technician. On the day of the shoot you should be there personally, with your best technician, to see to any last minute details such as dead leaf removal, re-staking, etc. Since you may need to rotate a plant to make use of a better angle for your photo, your technician can assist you. Advance site preparation will help you avoid over-disrupting your client's day and will help keep you and your own staff from running into overtime.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Once you've taken all your photos, take your time in deciding which shots are best reflective of your work and of the particular project itself. Carefully examine the various shots with your photographer and with anyone else who has an artistic eye. Try to determine which shots will look best when enlarged and to what size they will retain their impact. If you see shots that are crooked or that look fine except for one little thing, they can usually be edited in a photo management software such as Photoshop.

Sometimes a particular shot looks good when it's 5 x 7 but begins to lose its effect when you get up to 8 x 10 size. This is especially true of single plant shots which are not all that exciting to begin with but are taken to show off a healthy specimen. These types of photos are best kept to 3 x 5 or 4 x 6 and placed alongside an area photo or grouped with similar shots.

DO IT YOURSELF

If you're reasonably confident with, and in possession of a good digital camera (or a sophisticated cell phone camera), then there's a good chance that with a little patience you can photograph your own projects. Just remember: cameras don't take the best pictures; people do!