Saughton Park, Edinburgh, is one of Edinburgh’s hidden gems. Not literally hidden, of course. It’s easily found, and very popular with locals. But its position outside the city centre, a ten minute walk from the nearest tram stop, means that few tourists ever visit.

I was there earlier in the summer, with a group of friends to photograph the theme “red”. If you’re thinking there’s not a lot in this photograph that says “red” – I agree with you. At this point I’d already spent an hour or so exploring the theme. I needed a change of pace, so I decided on another challenge – to take a photograph totally unlike anything I’d ever shot before during my many visits to the park.

Stepping out of the glasshouse, I looked back to see this wonderfully complex view of the plants flattened and compressed against the glass. Viewed in this way, the plants completely lost their individual identity. Instead I was looking at colour, shape, and texture. But not chaos. The geometric grid of the glazing provided a structure that contained the abstraction, turning it into a grid of discreet images. There was a tension there. A grid imposed on the random patterns behind.

Some of the foliage was dying back, adding another dimension to the scene. Even on this bright summer’s day, the dying leaves gave the scene a sense of impermanence. The texture of the glass adds another layer to the composition – no reflections, but a feeling of distance from the greenery, a sense that it was in another world.

If this image has a theme, it’s about seeing differently. Looking beyond the obvious to capture how it feels to be in a glasshouse, rather than what the plants look like.

I think that’s one of the things I most enjoy about photography. As soon as you stop worrying about identifying the subject, you’re free to start paying attention to the shapes, textures and colours. And once you’re in that headspace, you’re in a much stronger position to capture an image that looks completely unlike anything else you’ve photographed that day. Hopefully in a good way.