House plants are very compliant subjects to practice close-up photography or for those crazy close capture antics defined by macrophotography. There is no disturbing breeze to counter and house plants never complain during the entire endeavour. It can be very frustrating stuff, bordering on grief.
There was an episode of the original Star Trek series when the Enterprise was infiltrated by beings that existed on a different temporal plane, experiencing time dilation compared to the crew’s time frame. When the aliens were present on the bridge the crew occasionally heard an annoying buzz as the only discernible manifestation of movement and speech from the accelerated alien presence. House plants probably experience us in the same way, as an annoying buzz, because they exist on a much slower temporal freeway and are therefore mostly unconcerned by a looming macro lens or a hot face flush with raging lividity because close-up photography is not for those dispossessed of patience.
Let me offer some suggestions for close-up photography delivered from someone that is perceived by many members of this forum as an annoying buzz that never goes away.
The most demanding technique expands the depth-of-field through either lens setting or with software that layers multiple exposures, all taken at a slightly different plane of focus, into a composite with apparently huge depth-of-field. This could be done manually with layers in PS but will likely drive you mad before you realize acceptable results. The software approach is less troublesome.
House plant subjects could produce abstractions by moving the lens during a long exposure fully stopped down, or by moving the plant while the camera shutter is open. Placing the pot on a thick piece of cloth and then slowly dragging the plant away from the lens during the exposure. You could also zoom out during an exposure. Lots of practice is required but you never know what kind of interesting image might be so created.
Translucent tenting over the plant, time exposure by moonlight, photographing the subject’s shadow, or movement of same, burning fire in the background, house plants outside, house plants in unlikely places, house plants wet from rain, house plants next to a fog machine, or humidifier mist, house plants in outer space. OK, perhaps I’ve gone too far. How about a house plant in a dark box fitted with a pinhole for light to get in and taking a long exposure through a sealed lacuna.
