Tag Archives: Leu Gardens

Place to Rest and Contemplate

Leu Gardens
Orlando, Florida

One of my focal areas for photography is public and private gardens. I couple this interest with collecting ideas for our own landscape development of Heatherwood. Many of my photographs are simple records of interesting things elements. For others, I try to create an image that reflects the feeling I have for a specific garden design. Yet, for those special ones, I try to create an image that provides a unique perspective of what I see. My adventure through a garden is multi-dimensional. Many times I come up with ideas, but no real “keeper” images. Other times I leave with a nice portfolio of images that presents the beauty of my visit. Other times I come up with a few (maybe one) images that I feel illustrate a little creativity.

The above image is one where I am trying to create the feeling that I experienced when I saw this vignette. It is a peaceful setting where I could relax in the shade, enjoy the beauty of what is around me, and contemplate what is right with this world. It represents a design element that I am trying to create with portions of our Heatherwood landscape. Of course, here in Central Washington, the moss covered trees and tropical vegetation will be replaced with conifers, local trees, and understory vegetation.

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It’s Red

150211_Red Leaf by . Fuji X-T1, XF18-135mm @ 135mm, f/5.6, 1/20 sec, ISO 400

Today’s message is very simple:  “If it is RED … Shoot!”  So I did.

Lesson Learned:  The image is not as sharp as I want it to be due to the low shutter speed.  I had a lot of room to increase the ISO sensitivity.  I just was not paying attention.  When I am walking around doing “hand-held” shooting, I fall back to shooting “snap-shots” instead of taking my time to optimize the image.  Take my time!!!!

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An Old South Garden

150210_Spanish Moss by . Fuji X-T1, XF18-135mm @ 41mm, f/6.4, 1/800 sec, ISO 1600

Henry P. Leu Gardens are covered with huge ancient southern wild oaks with Spanish moss hanging loosely from their branches.  It was like I imagined an old Southern Garden to be like.  High in the trees the moss looked like fluffy cotton balls.  Up close the moss is very structured.  I took the opportunity to add a little impressionistic water color feeling to the image using Topaz Impression.

Below is a close-up of the Spanish Moss.  It looks like it would be rough to the feel, but it is actually very soft.  I guess that it was used as bedding in the past.

150210_Spanish Moss- Close up by .

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Bamboo With a Different Perspective

150209_Bamboo by . Fuji X-T1, XF18-135mm @ 56mm, f/22, 6 secs, ISO 250

I rounded a corner and saw a massive wall of bamboo.  It was just waiting there for someone to take a vertical pan.  So I did…

Most of the time I use pans and moving multiple exposures to get my creative juices flowing.  They break up moments where I become transfixed just searching for an image to capture rather than waiting for an image to come to me.  This time the pan just appeared.  I did not even take a normal image.

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Fan

150208_Palm Fron by . Fuji X-T1, XF18-135mm @ 110mm, f/8.0, 1/120 sec, ISO 400

Walking through parts of Henry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando was almost like walking through a tropical rain forest.  Light filtering through the various palms provide multiple opportunities to capture interesting backlight images.  Huge palm leaves were like huge fans waving in the gentle afternoon breeze.  I love wandering along garden paths looking up, down, and everywhere.  It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

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