Niagara’s climate and abundance of cherry and peach orchards make for a dazzling spring display that few regions in Canada get to experience.

It takes only a day or two of sunny, balmy temperatures to cause the blossoms to burst into bloom, but their beauty is fleeting with at most a two-week window of opportunity to capture them with your camera.

Here are some photo tips to make the most of this short-lived but magnificent spectacle.

Blue skies … or cloudy

• The pink of cherry blossoms contrasted with a clear blue sky always creates an eye-popping image. However, don’t overlook the soft, diffused light of a cloudy day, or the warm light of early morning and late afternoon/evening when the sun is low in the sky. Cloudy days have the advantage of even lighting, without the harsh shadows and overexposed highlights that may ruin your photo.

Rainy days can be good days 

• April showers bring May flowers — but rain can enhance your flower photography as well. If you venture out with your camera after a rain shower, capture the blooms with raindrops still clinging to them. Or bring along a small spray bottle of water on your next photo outing — no one will know the difference, and your feet will be dry!

Get up close

• Don’t be afraid to get up close and personal with flowers. I like to get close enough to fill the entire frame with my chosen subject. In the absence of a macro or close-up lens, today’s cellphones do an admirable job of close-focusing.

Background check

• Pay close attention to the background — try to find one with as few distracting elements as possible. Isolating a few blossoms on the tree with dreamy out-of-focus blossoms in the background is a good strategy. Experiment with different angles and viewpoints. Shoot low to the ground, at flower level, and get a “bug’s-eye view.”

Portrait … or food mode 

• Most cellphone cameras have a portrait mode, as well as a food photography mode. These work well when you want to keep your flower subject in sharp focus while creating a lovely soft, blurred background and foreground.

Leading lines

• Use “leading lines” to guide the viewer’s eye into your photo — especially when shooting orchards in bloom, and fields of lavender and tulips.

Lots of blossoms

• Magnolias and daffodils are the first harbingers of blossom time in Niagara, followed by cherry/peach blossoms, then tulips; lilacs in mid-May, followed by peonies and irises in June. Check the website of your local botanical gardens to see what’s currently in bloom. Pick-your-own tulip and lavender fields have become popular attractions in the last few years; many are designed with Instagram-worthy selfies in mind. Enjoy all that the spring blossom season has to offer the photo enthusiast — but don’t wait too long to get out there!

Karen Fulham is program director and past president of the Niagara Association of Photographic Art club, which has been meeting for interested persons to learn, enjoy, discuss and explore photography for 70 years, having been formed in 1954. For more info, visit niagaraphoto.org.