For much of my life I’ve been publishing photos I took from my boat while out at sea. I’ll estimate that I’ve published 1,000 pics to accompany my articles in various publications I’ve written for.

Out on a boat, options for framing a photo are limited, and I’ve had to be creative with colors and shapes.

Often it was only the ocean, maybe a cloud or an island in the distance. I’ve had photos where a flying seagull or pelican in the background made the shot much more interesting.

This past weekend I was down the coast in Del Mar and Solana Beach, attending a fishing industry trade show (Bart Hall Shows, www.hallshows.com), and one morning before the show opened, my daughter and I had chocolate chip pancakes (Sooo good!) at T’s Café on PCH in Solana Beach. Then we took a quick drive up along the coast just a few miles.

At a safe spot, I pulled over to the side of the road where there was a view overlooking the beach. The deep background was complex with a long point of land jutting out to sea in the distance, a promontory up closer, a wide curving beach, and nice breaking waves with surfers carving the faces.

The scene was almost perfect for a picture, but not quite. I got out of the car and positioned myself in front of the best photo framing material I could ever ask for, and it was a material I was always lacking out at sea … flowers. In this picture it was mustard seed flowers that provided a bright yellow foreground.

I’m tempted to go buy some bright fake flowers and take them to sea with me, although some fishermen may take exception to having a bouquet of flowers in their shot with their catch of a lifetime. But scenic shots with birds, islands, and other oceanic scenery might become stellar shots with flowers in them, instead of simply acceptable shots.

This late winter and spring, I’m now on a mission to get out on the land and take some scenic photos with wildflowers of all sorts providing colorful framing. Many wildflowers are low to the ground, so this will require shooting from kneeling or even prone positions.

Getting down close to the ground can provide photogenic opportunities. One of the most dramatic waterfall pics I’ve ever seen was taken by a friend on a photographic adventure out on the Mojave Desert during a rainstorm.

I asked how tall the waterfall was and he laughed saying, “I was on my belly using a special lens. That magnificent waterfall was about an inch and a half tall.”