You may have an additional camera on your desktop that you didn’t realize you owned. It’s your scanner! Photography is about making images, right? We use mechanical or electronic equipment to “capture” an image. We give thought to the placement of our subject matter and the way we interpret what we see.

I use my scanner a lot, doing the normal things, like scanning old photographs. I also use a dedicated slide scanner to convert my slides to a digital format. The glass platen of the scanner can hold quite a bit, and the amount of detail that it is capable of extracting is really amazing.

Your scanner acts like a camera with a very limited depth of field. I am constantly finding items, that I place on my scanner, to eventually use in my artwork. These scans are wonderful components for my collages. Over the years I’ve used tons of flowers, leaves, ferns, butterflies, moths, fossils, feathers, seashells and more.

If the item has the potential to scratch or mar the glass of your scanner, place a piece of clear acetate on top of the glass, to protect it.

My friends laugh about my endless search for items to scan. Once at a restaurant, I slipped the decorative, garnish leaf (probably from the cabbage family) into my purse to take home. It’s wonderful ruffled edges and veined leaf structure were great in a future collage.

If the item that I’m scanning has a real “thickness” – I leave the scanner lid open while I scan. I shut off all the lights in the room, and as a result, get a black background. Another trick is to paint the inside of a shoe box black, and string transparent fishing line back and forth, creating a support system to hold an item that might crush, if placed directly on the glass.

You will find that the slightest adjustment to the placement of a flower will yield profound differences in artistic interpretation. Explore its endless possibilities.

I warn you that this process can become addictive. You will find yourself constantly scanning your environment for potential subject matter, from that butterfly body on the grill of your car, to the stray bird feather on your path. The beauty and intricacy of nature is constantly amazing.

As photographers we are accustomed to carrying our camera to the subject, to make our images. The scanning technique requires us to bring the subject to the camera – our scanner. I encourage you to try it and be prepared to be amazed.