Archive for the 'Gardens' Category
Our family takes a pretty low-key approach to the holiday season. We’re not much for decorating nor major shopping leading to massive gifting. The important thing is sharing time and food together. So in that spirit here are four images from our Thanksgiving feast, in anticipation of the Christmas feast to come in a few days.
We celebrated Thanksgiving at our son Zach’s house in Colorado. The main course was a deep-fried turkey which was delicious. While the turkey was dangling in a huge pot filled with 9 gallons of boiling peanut oil, and the cooks were imbibing on delicious Odell IPA, thoughts turned to “what else can we fry?” The answer was to raid the stash of winter squash and root vegetables.
The photo above is deep-fried lightly battered winter squash. The carrots, parsnips, and celeriac had already disappeared by the time the squash came out of the oil. The guys (and it was mostly the guys standing around watching the turkey cook in a beer keg out on the driveway) made quick work of the tasty squash, too. continue reading »
December 22 2010 | Food and Gardens and Photography | No Comments »
Resist the temptation. Do not get in a hurry to cut down those spent flower stems when the blooms fade.
Dry flower heads, seedpods really, can be almost as interesting as the flowers were. And many of them are attractive to small birds that come foraging for a mid-day snack.
This container, sitting on a wall in the Denver Botanic Gardens over Thanksgiving weekend, has what I think are Burnet seedheads. At least those elongated pods look a lot like Burnet. But maybe I’m wrong. Doesn’t really matter because they’re interesting sitting there, all dried out, but worshiping rainshadow sunshine.
They’re photographed against the sun and the rich blue sky. The light coming from behind rims each head, turning them into glowing miniature pom-poms. I chose a low camera angle to keep the background uncluttered. In my ideal world the jets would have been grounded. I suppose I could made the contrails disappear with a little retouching. continue reading »
December 13 2010 | Gardens and Native Plants and Photography | No Comments »
When you were first starting to take pictures you probably learned to put the sun behind you. At least that’s what I was taught way back in the ’60s. The results were predictably poor: harsh shadows, squinting little sisters, ugly light, and washed out colors. As you learned more and developed your skills you maybe decided to stay out of the sun altogether. Your dermatologist was delighted and you created nice soft landscapes and flattering snapshots of Aunt Jenny.
But sometimes you’re visiting someplace special and just can’t avoid photographing under midday sun. That’s what I experienced over Thanksgiving weekend on a visit to the delightful Denver Botanic Gardens. I’d never been there and was pleasantly surprised how nice the gardens looked during what has to be the most “off” of the off-seasons. Late November rarely looks good in a garden. Fall is fading and winter hasn’t quite arrived yet. continue reading »
December 08 2010 | Gardens and Photography | 2 Comments »
I was down in Eugene, Oregon last week to speak on garden photography to the Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group, a nice gathering of passionate gardeners. About 60 folks came out for the program and many let me know they got some inspiration from it.
Since I’d driven over 350 miles to get there I arranged to spend a couple of days photographing gardens in the area. My host, Pam Perryman, arranged for me to visit Roger Gossler and Gossler Farms Nursery outside Springfield. I called Marietta and Ernie O’Byrne of Northwest Garden Nursery and made a return visit to their spectacular garden. My garden writer friend Mary-Kate Mackey has been inviting me to stay at her home in the woods for years and I finally made it. She also introduced me to some of her garden friends so I ended up photographing nine gardens in all. continue reading »
November 16 2010 | Gardens and Photography | 1 Comment »
There’s been way too much work and too little play in my life lately. I had an errand to run in Seattle so I headed south this morning, did my shopping, and headed across Lake Washington to the Bellevue Botanical Garden. It’s one of my favorite public gardens in the region, a delight in any season.
I ended up spending about three hours meandering through the garden, photographing whatever my muse called out to me. The four photos here are my favorites from the day, although there are certainly other nice images in my “take.” These were all made with my 100mm macro lens with natural light under heavily overcast skies. Except for the vignettes applied to the edges there’s been almost no post production. These are all about seeing details in the garden.
The first image is a detail of a dahlia blossom. I was among three photographers working the extensive dahlia bed at the garden entrance this afternoon and it looked like all of us were seeking details. I set up my shot and waited for breaks in the breeze so the flower would stop moving. I like the subtle color gradations in the petals of this unidentified cultivar.
Wandering on down the path from the dahlias I passed this Cutleaf Japanese Maple, with foliage just beginning to achieve its deep autumn coloration. The branch and leaves I chose to photograph were held above the rest of the foliage, allowing me to separate it from the background with the relatively large aperture of f/5.6.
Cutleaf Japanese Maples are planted extensively in the northwest, and for good reason since they have great year-around interest in the garden. They’re generally compact, slow-growing, have superb structure, and the deeply-incised foliage is a visual delight.
Let your eyes graze the texture and undulations of a single leaf before moving on to the next. Breathe deeply and enjoy the visual melody.
The next texture to attract my attention was this Yellow Torch Lily, a Kniphofia cultivar.
The individual flower buds open from the bottom to the top of the cluster, giving a long period of bloom and lots of opportunities for bees to visit and pollinate. Since the flowers are tubular I presume hummingbirds like them, too but I didn’t see any flitting around today.
What attracted me today was the repeating pattern, not quite regular but not really irregular either. The color intensifies from top to bottom as the buds are closer to opening.
The final detail I’m sharing with you today is the back side of an individual hydrangea blossom. This one is
Hydrangea aspera. To be botanically accurate, what we’re seeing here is actually a large bract that surrounds an infertile blossom.
These aren’t the kind of images that I’ve found to be particularly commercially viable, but they’re what drew me to photography in the first place. So I guess this is what constitutes my personal work. I’ve always had trouble defining just what that term means for me as I’ve always tried to find a market for almost everything I photograph.
In an ideal world I’d spend most of my days outside with a macro lens on my camera, seeking out interesting details among the flowers, foliage, fungi, and other small life forms. I work slowly, contemplatively, shifting a few centimeters one way or another, in essence playing with form, texture, pattern, color contrast, and light. Hopefully I bring much of the same thought process to my better-paying photography.
Thanks to my friend and fellow photographer Doug Bascom, who has been posting very nice garden images on Facebook and inspired me to get out and play a bit this afternoon.
September 28 2010 | Gardens and Photography | 1 Comment »
