Photographer compiles stunning tropical garden book

Graeme Teague's legs were scratched by thorns while hiking the wild parks on Curacao and Bonaire as he took photos of the giant candle cacti.

In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., he climbed onto the roof of his pickup truck, held a flashlight with his teeth and tried to balance himself to get a photo of the sausage plant, which blooms at night.

Nothing, it seems, stopped this former South Floridian from taking his best shot of his favorite plants for his book, "Tropical & Garden Flower Identification" (18 Rabbit Press, $34.95).

"I get so involved in photography," Teague said in a telephone interview from his home in Adel, Ga. "I get into a zone and let my mind go almost free."

Sometimes he gets so far into the creative zone that he is totally unaware of what's around him. Take the time he was concentrating on shooting a flower in a tree near the Copan River in Honduras.

"After a while, I realized something was really wrong," he said. "I thought, 'Damn, my left foot really hurts.' I was standing on a hill of fire ants, and they were biting me. Everyone was standing around laughing at me. I had blocked the whole world out."

Teague's adventures in shooting plants was well worth any pain or ridicule. Last May, his self-published book won a silver medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards as the best nonfiction book in the southeastern United States by an independent publisher.

You might say he came by his love of

nature naturally. Born of South African parents in Canada, Teague moved to Africa when he was 3 and was exposed to wildlife, environment and plants there for the next 10 years.

"My dad had a bust of Darwin on the wall as opposed to a crucifix," he said, laughing.

Rebuilding a career

He started his photographic career underwater, shooting sea life while he was exploring scuba diving sites. Eventually, his career transformed into taking photos and working on travel brochures for clients in the West Indies, South Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.

Until Sept. 11, 2001.

"I would have stayed in South Florida, but when the terrorists attacked, my business went down with the Twin Towers," he said. "The clients canceled their guide books and reprinted the ones they had. Within 18 months, my business went down and I was trying to live on $5,000-$6,000 a year."

His answer was to move to southern Georgia with a rental truck and his photo library. Living there isn't as sophisticated as in South Florida, but it is cheaper.

Teague had to figure out what he could do with his photographs that could make money. He found that Americans love to spend money on gardening.

"I told myself, 'That's it.' I love the tropics. Everywhere I lived I photographed plants, including the 12 years I lived in Miami and Fort Lauderdale."

When he examined the competition, he found many of the books were written for those enthralled with Latin names and long, esoteric descriptions. Many of the photos were overexposed, underexposed or out of focus.

His answer was to write a book to help the hobbyist gardener identify plants in the garden with close-up and overall shots. The identification section is divided into 12 chapters — from big leaf shrubs to fruit trees. He included the common name, plant family and Latin name of each plant, along with a short description. The book also features Web sites, a glossary and a map of the areas the plants are grown.

Renaissance man

It took him two years to research and put together the 238-page book, which contains more than 500 photographs. Teague shot 400 of them himself and got the rest from fellow photographers, many whom didn't charge him to include them in the book.

A friend in Toronto did the layout on a Quark program, and Teague e-mailed the book to a printer in Singapore. The printer mailed the books back to him in Georgia, and he was in the publishing business.

"You want full control of a project like this," he said. "I wanted to tell the story the way I wanted to tell it. I wanted a certain quality of paper, printing and photography. Everything must be sharp. I didn't want anyone telling me I couldn't do what I wanted."

Although he loved gardening when he lived in South Florida, he was far from a horticultural expert. He considers himself a Renaissance man and taught himself, just like he studied cooking, bartending and how to converse about politics and world situations.

"Anyone who does gardening understands that it's almost built into their DNA," he said. "If you get dirt under your fingernails, you feel better and become a nicer person to hang out with that day."

Teague, 49, sees this as more than just a story about a man and a book.

"I was middle-aged, lost everything and started life all over again with virtually no resources," he said. "I managed to rebuild my life."