This picture was made with a camera I designed and built for a project photographing ancient oaks in Richmond Park – a digital view camera made out of the trees I intended to photograph. I'd just finished rebuilding part of the camera using wood from a 400-500 year old tree and hadn't tested it yet in the field, but the weather looked too promising to miss, so I rushed out to my local park – Brockwell.

A dark, heavy shower was passing over the Walled Garden but the setting sun had also begun to appear, lighting the stormy clouds from behind. I battled the rain, using an umbrella to set up the camera with one hand and struggled to focus in the dim light. For a minute or two the blazing colours and glistening summer flowers created one of the greatest scenes I've yet witnessed in this beautiful garden, and one which I just managed to record with my strange camera.

My camera is unique, having been constructed from wood which came from at least three trees in Richmond Park; an old oak affected by beefsteak fungus, a cherry tree that grew at Richmond Gate, and a veteran oak that's still alive. The wood was donated to me for this project by the Royal Parks.

Each photograph is composed of 8 overlapping frames which match precisely. These were then stitched automatically in Adobe Lightroom, giving the equivalent of a ‘virtual’ 6x7cm sensor with 200 megapixels resolution.

Overall winner - International Garden Photographer of the Year Competition 18