Slender plants not showing up in photos - why?

I am new to owning a digital camera and taking photos. I have a Vivitar F128.

For the most part it is fine (I know how to transfer photos onto pc, via Vivitar Image Manager and then on to Photobucket).

However, there have been some photos that are just not showing what I see when I take the photo. For instance, recently I took a photo of my lawn meadow. Whilst it shows the tall oxeye white daisies, the tall slender foxgloves totally disappear in the photo - why? What should I be doing? I have to take it from a fair distance in order to get the meadow in. But it's not just the distance since today I took a photo of a hanging basket - from about 3 feet away and, same thing, the dwarf lupins barely register in the photo - why?

Here are the details in my camera manual

http://www.vivitar.com/files_products/609/ViviCam_F128_Camera_Manual.pdf

I get confused with the macro switch - up/down. I get fuzzy images one way round but that seems to fluctuate leaving me confused.

I am going to take another photo of this hanging basket soon using the magnifier facility and see if that will work better. (Originally I wanted to take in the surrounding cloth rainbow as well but, using the magnifier will not include that I guess).

 

Isn't it horrible getting used to something new Rosebay!

I've had a quick scan through your manual and I've come up with two things straight away.

1....If your macro switch is in the on position then it will give you a close up of the plant in front of you and un-focus everything else around it. Somewhere on the camera's display possibly through the viewfinder with the camera switched on you might see a little flower icon, this is telling you that Macro is switched on.

2....With the macro button off for anything but close ups you should be able to select a 'Scenery' option in the 'Photo Capture Mode'. This should give you the ability to take everything you see and it will appear in the shot. Think of it as a landscape picture where you will see everything equally around you and not some parts in focus and others out.

Give this a try and see how you get on.

 

That's really interesting Sheal, I've had the same problem with my LUMIX G5 and will take a look at my menu to, great advice

 

Thanks Sheal for looking into this problem and offering a solution. Appreciated. I have noted what you say re 'scenery option' and will try it next time foxgloves appear in my lawn meadow (alas they have now gone to seed)...although some hollyhocks are now in bud! I just didn't realise what scenery option meant i.e. that it makes apparent what becomes invisible in ordinary photo mode.

 

Is there a local park or somewhere similar that you can try out the scenery/landscape option Rosebay. Trying out different things, taking shots near and far and of different aspects will help you get used to how the camera performs. Choose a time when you're not rushed and it allows you to think about the shots. It doesn't matter how many you take but you will be able to compare them all when they are loaded onto your computer and delete those you're not happy with.