Spring is practically here, which means that the streets of Mexico City were filled with purple color thanks to these iconic trees. In order for you to show off this season on Instagram we bring you five tips for taking photos of jacarandas.
In order to give you the best tips we consulted photographers Karen and Ilse Huesca(@ilsehuesca on Instagram) and photographer Julio Novoa (@mibuenjuli on Instagram), who revealed their secrets to take the best spring photos. If you don’t have a camera, don’t worry because these tips also apply to cell phones. Grab pencil and paper and take note.
How to take pictures of jacarandas? Follow these tips
1. What is the best time to take pictures of jacarandas?
So that the spring sun doesn’t ruin your picture, both photographers recommend to do it just after sunrise or just before sunset. The worst time to take photos of this type is just at noon because that is when there is more sunlight.
Julio also details that, when there is a lot of light, you can try to turn around the subject, object or the place where you will take the photo to look for a more favorable illumination. Try to avoid backlit photos.
2. Take care of the focus and explore your cell phone’s options.
In general, cell phones usually have automatic focus; however, they will not always focus on what we want. You only need to touch the screen to focus on what you want to highlight. It is also important that you explore the options that your cell phone camera has, since most of them already have a pro mode in which you can modify the ISO and even the speed at which the photo is taken. You will discover incredible effects.
Karen does not recommend using flash either at night or during the day. The ideal is to play with the light around you. She also does not recommend taking photos from applications such as Instagram because they tend to lower the quality of the image.
For his part, Julio recommends, when taking a photo, to try to look for a horizon line and place it in the middle of the screen “always looking for the line to be as straight as possible”.
It is also important to check if the subject, object or whatever you want to take is well framed, that is, on one side of the photo or in the center.
Regarding the camera options, he recommends adjusting the exposure. If there is little light, raise the exposure a little and lower it when there is a lot of light around.
3. Look at the surroundings
https://twitter.com/TurismoCDMX/status/1367188154701262852?s=20&t=tc84A30R1_lnX_PIt1jrxQ
Mexico City has plenty of monuments and emblematic buildings that would make good backgrounds for your photo with jacarandas. For example, Ilse’s favorite place to photograph these trees is in the Alameda Central with the Torre Latino in the background. In Julio’s case his favorite is Parque Mexico and Paseo de la Reforma because of the architecture there. You can also look for places where there are many jacarandas together.
4. You can also focus on the details
One thing that stands out about jacarandas is their intense purple color, so don’t forget to focus on the details. You can take very close shots of their leaves or their structure. It is also a good tip if the sun is too intense and doesn’t let you take landscape photos.
5. Try several angles and let your imagination run wild.
Don’t just stick to one angle. Experiment with the photos and take them from different points. Even if it’s the same space, a photo can change a lot when you explore new angles. What matters here is your creativity.
You can even take pictures of trees from different angles: sideways or upside down.