I carry a camera whenever I will be in a garden or around plants. So far my biggest downfall has been not using a tripod.

I carry a camera quite often. Now I have to start carrying a pen.

Thanks, those are good tips. Wish I had been carrying a camera all along.

As an individual who's attempting to launch a local gardening newspaper/newsletter I have found that I need my own source of photos. There are plenty of stock photos sources (none of them affordable) but all the flowers are posed and perfect and most of the scenes are from somewhere else and obvious. Last Christmas I gave myself a nice 35mm camera (this year will be digital) and got busy documenting everything that occurs in my garden as well as some significant gardens in the area. I averaged 10 rolls of film per month and really followed the seasons and changes that happen in nature. I cannot place a $ value on the thousands of pictures I now have at my disposal.

I do all my own, pictures or illustrations. Some of it is manipulated clipart that can be used for websites but not-for-profit, some of it is permission-free clipart from Dover Press that I've adapted. My latest foray is the seed saving FAQs here for which I do my own photos. I'm soon to upload a website for my NFP and I've got a blurb asking people to share their own photos and illustrations...for WS there's nothing better than someone else's photos to show variety of technique and great imagination.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Saving FAQs