Tag Archives: stream

A Place to Relax and Dream

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Woodland Stream
Bellevue Botanical Garden, WA

The filtered late afternoon light made this woodland scene in the Bellevue Botanical Garden come to life. Light and shadows created a beautiful contrast that captured my eyes and mind when I walked by. I moved off the main path to a small overlook to get a better view. A gentle breeze moved the leaves on the trees above creating the filtered light to move around the scene. The light seemed to jump from branch to branch. I took time to just enjoy the scene before I started creating images. After taking a few images, I closed my eyes and just listened to the water trickling over the rocks. My mind relaxed, then my neck, shoulders, and arms. What a wonderful little place!

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The Bridge

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‘Bridge Over Waterfall’
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Looking back four years ago when we constructed the stream, I recall the effort it took to place this rock over the stream. I took an experienced excavator operator and three men to finagle this huge rock in place over the stream bed. It consumed the good part of an afternoon to place smaller rocks as its base and meticulously position the bridge. It was worth it!

Since then, we have been planting trees, shrubs, and ground covers to soften the edge of the stream. After four years, plants are growing over the rocks down to the flowing water. We frequently sit and have our morning coffee here and enjoy the maturing scenery and listen to the flowing water and the birds sing. It is a great way to start the day!

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Up to the “Perch”

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“Stepping Stones Up to the Perch”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

On this day I decided to take the back path up to the “Perch.” From the entrance of the stone steps, I can see the Adirondack chair and the small mountain lantern. I can hear the sound of a rushing stream, but cannot see anything. A surprise waits at the top.

My mission for this day’s photo excursion was to record a baseline for the state of the Japanese garden before we start our spring planting project. I want to have before and after perspectives of the different vignettes in the garden. Our objective for this area will be to encase the area around the path with various ground covers and maybe a couple of deciduous shrubs.

Since this post talks about the path up to the “Perch”, I decided to change the overall web site header to the surprise at the top of the steps.

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Rushing Water, Ending the Season

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Stream with Autumn Leaves
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Early morning sun highlighted these fallen autumn leaves. They immediately caught my attention and drew me to work the scene with my camera. I walk up to the top of the stream most every day to see and hear the rushing water. I find something new to photograph every time.

The days are getting shorter and colder. Autumn is ending and winter is following close behind. Yesterday we even had a little dusting of snow. I will need to shut the stream and waterfalls down soon to prevent ice from restricting the stream causing the water to overflow its banks. It saddens me to do so, I will hold back as long as I can. It will be mid March until I will be able turn the stream back on.

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What I Am Trying to Achieve

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“Japanese Maple & Waterfall”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

My vision of our Heatherwood Japanese Garden stream and waterfall is to have the stream encased by green trees, spreading evergreen shrubs, and ground covers flowing over the stream edges. I want to create a feeling that the stream and surrounding plants and rocks are a single complementary element. In this image, the Japanese Maple flows into the stream. What is missing is something to cover the ground beneath the maple that will spread over the rocks.

Over the past year I have been gazing over the stream to define the “vignette” that I am looking for. I feel that I am ready to start moving forward. We are currently in the planning process to develop the specific plant selection for next year’s Heatherwood project. The stream bed and surrounding area will be our top priority.

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Think Creative

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Onomea Falls Water Color

I recently visited the Hawaiian Botanical Gardens, near Hilo, Hawaii.  My mission was to photograph creatively.  I did not focus on the overall beauty of the environment around me.  My focus was on separate scenes, small vignettes, and macro detail while using creative photographic techniques.

For this image, I took multiple exposures covering the range from the bright water and sky to the dark shadows.  When I brought them together into an HDR, all the tonalities were captured. However, I lost the feeling of the dense tropical rainforest setting.  So I decided to play a little with Topaz’s new ‘Studio” software.  I used the watercolor effect to create this image.

I haven’t given up on the natural presentation of this image yet.  It will require a lot of luminance masking with layers to get the natural image that I saw in my mind.  I will do this at a future time when I am in a very patient mood.

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