Texture

Generally, a tip for taking good pictures of 'textures' is to avoid a harsh flash light or direct light source. A harsh flash or direct light would actually "flatten" the whole image and you would not be able to bring out the texture of the subject. This photo was taken from a tree trunk outside LT10.

As you can see from this pic above, this tree trunk is actually backlit. Under normal circumstances, the trunk would appear under-exposed. However, with a little help of a piece of white paper or a reflective surface, I was able to illuminate the front of the trunk without the use of a direct/harsh lighting which might affect the overall effect of the photo.

This shot above was taken from the road outside the University Hall. To add on to my discription above, to maximise the visibility of texture, the light source needs to cast shadows into the furrows and dips in the surface and illuminate the ridges.

From this second picture above, in order to accentuate the rough texture of the ground, I actually bounced the flash from an angle on the ground so that it lits up the top surface of the road but at the same time, cast shadows into the grooves.