Here is a shrub in my yard. It’s wild senna, or Cassia hebecarpa. It’s a tightly clustered shrub with lots of beautiful yellow flowers. I placed my drawing pad under a cluster of flowers to take the picture. You can see there are other elements in the photo. The white pad blocks out the ground and other plants so that I can more clearly see the flowers. If you have someone to help you, try using a larger piece of paper behind the subject. Have your assistant hold the paper, which allows you to better crop and focus on your subject before taking the photo.

Behind the shrub is a concrete wall. I shifted the position of my camera to eliminate the distractions in the background. The composition is complex, and there is too much going on, but it does capture an accurate depiction of how the shrub grows. Because of the camera and lens I used, some of details in the photo are out of focus.

In this photograph, I used a light meter to take a sample of a smaller cluster of flowers. The depth of field is relatively shallow, with the background landscape in shadow. This created a dark background and isolated the plant.

Finally, I pruned off a branch and brought it inside, placed it on a large sheet of white paper, and used my OttLite to illuminate it. This photo eliminates all distractions. It’s clean, neat, and easy to understand. You have many options in photographing botanical subjects. It’s not always possible to cut the plant to bring inside. The most important aspect is to eliminate distractions by moving the camera around the subject or placing something behind it to block other elements.