THIS PRODUCT PROVIDES ACCESS TO THE RECORDED SERIES FOR THREE MONTHS - YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO DOWNLOAD.
Most of us photograph a flower the way we found it, from where we happened to be standing, and wonder later why the picture is less interesting than the moment was.
This series is about the decisions that come before the shutter. Three evenings, recorded live with our community in the summer of 2026, and one of the most popular series we have run.
Have a look first:
We have put a short highlights film together for each part, so you can see how Kathleen teaches before you buy.
Part 1, All About Textures: https://youtu.be/GW4rdW9Tl5w
Part 2, The Magic of Blur: https://youtu.be/T6MBohW-suU
Part 3, Kathleenisms: https://youtu.be/KgWC1AdDDZs
About the talks:
Part 1. All About Textures
Kathleen wrote the book on this. She starts at the beginning, what a texture actually is and how it sits as a layer over your photograph, then goes through the choices that decide whether the result looks painterly or looks like a mistake. How much tooth a texture has and why that changes the opacity you use. Taking texture back off the area in focus so your subject still reads. Building a subtle colour blend rather than a heavy overlay. She also shows how she finds and makes her own.
Part 2. The Magic of Blur
Sharpness is not the only way to tell someone what you saw. Kathleen works through the stages of selective focus, from a single petal edge to nothing sharp at all, and shows what each one does to the story. Shooting through foreground, motion blur, intentional camera movement at around a fifteenth of a second, and in-camera double exposure. There is a good section on Lensbaby optics, the Sweet 50, Soul 45, Velvet 56 and the Soft Focus optic, and what each one is actually for. Almost all of it is done in camera.
Part 3. Kathleenisms: Whispers from the Garden
Across twenty years of teaching, Kathleen has built up short phrases she uses to make an idea stick. There are more than forty in this session, each with the photograph behind it. Look for the loner, the flower with no friends, because your background will be cleaner. If it doesn't add, it needs to go, because everything in the frame is there since you left it there. Work it, works. There's not always a photo. My photos may have shallow depth of field, but they are made with deep depth of feeling.
What our community said on the night:
These are from the chat during the live sessions:
Sharon: "Kathleen was my first flower photography teacher. She taught me how to see. I have been studying with her since 2008."
Andrea: "She was my first teacher, too. Opened up a whole new world."
Lynn: "She is so generous with her information and explanations. Not a seed packet photo in sight."
Linda: "Thank you, Kathleen, for making blur an acceptable art form."
Jill: "I love the honesty of this presentation. Rabbit holes and all."
A first-timer in the June session: "I am totally new to this and am blown away."
Sue: "This has been a wonderful series. I love your flower photographs and have learnt so much."
And at the end of the final evening, from two different people within seconds of each other: "I'm sad we've come to the end," and "It is so sad that we have to end."
That is the bit you cannot get from a description. Nobody wanted it to finish and several people who had followed Kathleen's work for well over a decade said they still learned something. The recordings are the next best thing to having been in the room.
Who it is for:
Anyone who photographs flowers, in a garden, on an allotment or on a kitchen table. There is nothing here that needs specialist gear. As Kathleen puts it, it is not about the gear, it is about the light, the subject, the background and your creative vision for the subject.
Why we love this one:
Kathleen shows you a photograph you would like to have taken, then tells you exactly how she saw it and how she made it. Nothing is held back, and there is no mystery in it. Our community has been asking for her by name for years, and several people in the room said she was the teacher who first taught them how to see.
Kathleen's first series with us is still available:
Before this one, Kathleen gave us two workshops in 2025, The Art of Flower Portraiture and Photographing Aged Flowers. That series is still on the website and you can buy it separately:
Flower Workshops 2025 With Kathleen Clemons, £12 https://www.camversation.co.uk/product-page/flower-workshops-2025-with-kathleen-clemons
The two stand alone, and they sit together well. The 2025 sessions are about seeing the flower and building the portrait. This one is about texture, blur and the thinking behind both.
About Kathleen:
Kathleen Clemons is a New England based professional photographer who lives on the coast of Maine. She is known for her creative use of natural light and her flower portraiture, and she is an instructor for the Santa Fe Workshops. She is also the author of All About Textures. She has a degree in education and loves to teach others to see beyond the obvious.
https://www.kathleenclemonsphotography.com/
Access is for three months from purchase
