In Your Yard

Forever thinking of entrepreneurial ways to make a few extra dollars to supplement my income, I dreamt up yet another interesting idea that incorporates my love of photography and gardening.

Plus it enables me to escape the office cubicle, see beyond the partitions, and talk with people who share the same fascination of a well-designed garden. This idea is surprisingly simple. Those willing to take it on would only require a few tools in their armoury:

1. – Their camera equipment. I highly recommend the Canon 40D or 50D, they’re both amazing cameras. But at the very least, you’d need a DSLR which can shoot multiple frames per second, with extreme resolution and that produces large images with a minimum of 120DPI.
For those already with this level of camera, the following tools might also already sitting in the boot of your car.

2. – Both a 3-step ladder and a collapsible ladder that can go as high as the guttering upon a house. Aaah, that will have caught your interest! You’ll be asking, Where’s Stephen going with this idea?! Not much further now before this simple business idea will be revealed…

4. – A tripod that goes to the same height as the larger tripod. You will need this to capture images shot in low-level light where a longer exposure time is needed.

5. – Good people skills and basic business sense. There’d be no point running a business without being able and willing to talk with people. This idea is going to have you talking with a very wide range of people – from toddlers to their great grandparents.

6. – An eye for horticulture, colours and contrasts. (Ooooh, the crux of the idea is beginning to appear!)

Because this idea involves visiting and viewing the gardens of suburban homes, an understanding of horticulture, if only basic, will help to understand how plants can compliment each other. This could be learnt on the job.

You’ll be observing the composition, noting the position of plants, statues, gnomes, rocks, fountains and all that’s been added.

7. – A suitable vehicle and drivers license is essential. But being able to walk, climb, trek, and jump through hoops is also most advantageous.

Now that your imagination has been stimulated, I give you the business idea:

Prelude

Over the last three million years man has shaped, preened, planted & paved his patch of earth in an attempt to personalize his patch of dirt.
In Roman times, concrete pedestals with pee-ing cherubs were placed around the pillars, palms beside archways and Unichs at every junction. During the Italian Renaissance, hedged labyrinths were the scene from the 4th floor bay-window.

Since the end of WW2, household gardens increased to more than half the land in many allotmonts. Many modern housing estates are modeled on the green landscape planned around the bricks & mortar.

So it’s no surprise to find many home-owners take a lot of pride in arranging the plants to suit the season, to utilize the available light and (most importantly) to improve the appearance of their already stunning homes.

These amazing gardens are the forefront of our society. We remember the pillars and pedestals of Rome, the oasis of Egypt, the gardens of Babylon. Now we must preserve the greenery of our work in the backyard.

Thanks to Jaime Drury and other televised garden experts, more homes are totally renovating the appearance of the exterior of their homes to suit the standards set down by today’s available plants.

As a photographer whose seen the many transformations of family homes, I’ve now realized that these memories were never preserved properly. Nobody shot an overall picture displaying the entire yard. Nor is there any shots showing the scene from the 4 points of the compass, or from each fence line.

So now I put the full idea forward for you to steal.

Simply put: Photographing impressive gardens throughout suburbia, from a sufficient height to capture from fence-to-fence. Including driveway and body or thing that chooses to be their at time of photograph.

Offer 2 plans, either cleaned up or as-Is, as normally portrayed in the average suburban day. Maybe a third option that includes content of garden-equipment used to create/maintain the yards.

Do you want to run with this idea? It’s yours for the taking!