Tag Archives: Longwood Gardens

Same Subject, Different Treatment

Tree Overlooking Meadow, Longwood Gardens, PA

I have walked by this tree overlooking the meadow at Longwood Gardens many, many times.  I must have over 100 images of it, taken over the years.  On my last visit, I stopped again.  It was a nondescript overcast day.  I recorded an image anyway.  Maybe, I could do something interesting in post.

I created this peaceful  overcast feeling by simply adding a texture.  It captures the way I was feeling at the time. It reminds me a little of the Hudson River painters of the late 19th century.

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Brightness to Start a New Month

Impressionistic Adaptation of Pink Orchid

I have been to Longwood Garden’s orchid display dozens of times.  On a recent visit I wandered through looking for a different way to capture the beauty of the display.  I thought a double exposure of some orchids rotated about 45 degrees might be interesting. I added a little Topaz Impression to achieve the final result.  It is a bright image to start a bright new September.  Have a good one!

I enjoy experimenting from time to time.  It inspires me to look a little deeper.

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First Impression for the Last

141229_East Conservatory Entry by . Longwood Gardens East Conservatory

Fuji X-T1, XF18-55mm @ 18mm, f/22, 1/5 sec, ISO 400

This is the first scene I saw as I entered the Longwood Conservatory from the East end. I caught this before a zillion people showed up.  I saved my first image for the last Longwood Christmas post for this year.  Next year will have many additional interesting opportunities.  Goodbye Longwood, at least for the time being.

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More From Longwood Gardens

141228_White Decorations Longwood by . Fuji X-T1, XF18-55mm, @ 55mm, f/8, 1/55 sec, ISO 400

There is always something around every corner or sometimes right in front of you at the Longwood Gardens Conservatory.  This decoration was right in front in the East Conservatory as I walked in.  It caught my eye as soon as I glanced around the room.

I pulled out the details of the twigs and the feathers with a “recipe” that I have made in NIK Color Efex Pro.  The recipe is a combination of Tonal Contrast, Detail Enhancement, and Pro Contrast.  I then applied Darken/Lighten Center to provide additional focus on the white decorations. The total processing time was less that 2 minutes.

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Still in the Christmas Spirit

141227_Red Poinsettia by . Fuji X-T1, EF18-55mm @ 55mm, f/11, 1/10 second, ISO 400

I am still in the Christmas mood.  This image is just an effort to work with composition.  The subject is the center stamens and pistils of the poinsettia flower.  The plant leaves framed the subject while the background ornaments added interest without distracting from the stamens and pistils.  I cropped the leaves to eliminated any distracting edges.  Using the “mirror lock-up” function might have improved the sharpness of the subject.  Always learning …

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Longwood Christmas #2

141222_Longwood Main Consrevatory by . Longwood Gardens Conservatory

Fuji XT-1, XF18-55mm @ 34mm, f/22, 1/3 sec, ISO 400

The bright light from the ceiling skylight made capturing this photo taken with a small aperture possible.  People were everywhere.  Patience paid off again while I waited for the scene to clear.  I waited over 10 minutes to catch this break.  If I would have had a long exposure there would have been people entering the scene.  Lessons learned:  do not photograph Longwood on a Friday.

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It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

141222_Longwood Center Consrevatory by © 2014 Karl Graf. Longwood Gardens Conservatory

Fuji XT-1, XF18-55mm @ 26.5mm, f/11, 1/10 sec, ISO 400

Now that I have finished the Fonthill Tile Tour, I can finally start to get into the Christmas blogging spirit.  All the outgoing presents are wrapped and sent out.  Some of my Christmas cards are out, others are still in process.  I will be very late this year.

A week ago I was able to get out to Longwood Gardens with a good friend for a little Christmas photography excursion.  It was a great day, but my creative juices weren’t really flowing.  However, I was able to just step back and enjoy.  This image took me forever to capture.  People were walking in front of the far end of the water fountain.  I waited, waited and waited.  It seemed like forever, but I finally got a very short window of just a few seconds to snap this image.  It was worth the wait.

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Longwood Meadow: Impressionistic Perspective

140930_Longwood Meadow #4a by . Fuji X-T1, XF10-24mm @ 24mm, f/22, 1/35 sec, ISO 200

This image is my first trial using Topaz’s new “Impression” software.  I took a nondescript image with a distinct foreground, mid ground, and far field as the base of my experiment.  I was pleasantly surprised of the interesting result.  Below is the original RAW image.

140930_Longwood Meadow #4b by .

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More of Longwood’s Meadow

140929_Longwood Meadow #3 by . Fuji X-T1, XF 10-24mm @ 24mm, f/20, 1/110 sec, ISO 400

More wide angle practice.  My objective for this image was to capture the details of the near field grass as well as the background of the tree line and farm house.  I feel that the image would have been more interesting if I would have taken it from a slightly higher angle so I could have included some of the mid-ground.  I knew better!

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Longwood Garden Meadow

140928_Longwood Meadow #2 by . Fuji X-T1, XF 10-24mm @ 22mm, f/18, 1/160 sec, ISO 400

During my walk in Longwood’s Meadow, I saw this single tree with the path curving around it.  The leading line and isolated tree caught my eye. The wide angle helped place the tree in perspective with the expansive meadow.  Again, my thoughts for the day were to work on wide angle perspectives and just enjoy the day.

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