Freedom Bell Camellia

Freedom Bell is an evergreen shrub that produces its bell-shaped flowers early on in January or February. Unlike many evergreens it remains compact (maximum 5 feet in 10 years) so will not get out of control in a small garden and its shiny green leaves are a good foil for other plants that flower later. It's best shielded from strong winter winds so grown in front of a north or north-west facing fence or wall in this part of the world.
I've only had this specimen for two weeks and it has been sitting in its pot in the conservatory, so enjoying the windless conditions in there! However once it has finished flowering it will have to take its chances in the big world. We have an acid soil so it should be fine, as rhododendrons thrive here and a camellia is a similar type of plant.
For flower photography, backgrounds can be important. It was a gorgeous sunny day but I noticed the back garden was still shaded by trees. I positioned the camellia in the conservatory against this shaded background. This allowed the strong side lighting to be effective in highlighting the edges of the petals and leaves. I kept the depth of field small by setting f4 and using the telephoto end of the zoom, so the railings outside were softened. These measures contributed to increasing the impact of the gorgeous bright red blooms, and also gave the illusion that this plant was growing outside.