Plants and their companions

Photographs I made in winter and summer, with one roll of film in my camera for several months before I finished it. All were made around the Botanics in Edinburgh (most inside the gardens, and some outside but nearby). We are regular visitors to the Botanics and other gardens on our travels. There's something very relaxing about being around plants. Sometimes I wish I knew more about them and their ways.

At Inverleith House (or Climate House as I should call it now) at the moment there's a great exhibition by Keg de Souza called 'Shipping Roots'. The exhibition looks at eucalyptus, prickly pear and ‘alien’ seeds which were carried across the world in sheep’s wool, connecting Australia, India and the UK through legacies of the British Empire. I particularly loved the smell of the eucalyptus plants in the first room, the series of cyanotypes and the plant drawings throughout the exhibition. One of the prickly pear plants in the exhibition is connected to a microphone and speaker, so you can hear the sounds the plant is making. The gallery attendant encouraged me to speak to the plant, so I said hello and asked how it was feeling. The plant didn't say anything. I walked away awkwardly. I like to think silence means it's happy and content.

For those with an interest in film photography and technical things, I photographed these with a Pentax ME Super and 50mm lens on expired Kodak BW400CN 35mm film. I digitised them using a Canon 5D Mark IV, 100mm macro lens, LED lightbox and pixl-latr film holder, and converted the negatives using Lightroom and Negative Lab Pro. I've been enjoying film photography again recently, so maybe there will be more to come.