Frosty Yuletide

By Saxon Holt – Posted in: Garden Photography

This will be my shortest Gardening Gone Wild post yet. Not because I have nothing to say, nor because my words are so poetically haiku. Not because it is the holiday and few are reading gardening blogs, nor because I am trying to stay away from religious sentiment.

I am on a cruise ship in the Caribbean trying to upload from a satellite.

Oh the ribbing I’m gonna get from admitting it. Oh you poor souls stuck in bad weather, bad traffic, long boring blogs.

I did plan the post before I left. I organized 9 photos of red Christmas photos. Red berries, red poinsetties, even a red Protea; all to play off my red sassanqua camellia ‘Yuletide’ that was covered with frost the day before I left.

It was so wintery perfect for a December 24 posting. I worked on silhouetting the flower, an idea for a note card. I was all prepared to segue this post into one of my PhotoBotanic Garden Photography lessons on computer post production tools.

Alas the satellite upload is so slow I am unable to load all the photos. If all goes well though, I will persevere and get one more up.

Here is a composite of the process. Did that upload ?

I do love botanic illustrations and I love doing it direct from the garden rather than bringing the flowers into the studio. The camera always lies but I can prove this frosty blossom was not some studio creation. It is not too good to be true.

But this vacation is too good to be true. My family has some cold drinks waiting . . . and as much fun as I do have posting to Gardening Gone Wild, it feels like work at this moment.

Happy Holidays all ! See ya in 2013 !

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Saxon Holt

Saxon Holt is the owner of PhotoBotanic.com, a garden picture resource for photographs, on-line workshops, and garden photography stories. An award winning photojournalist and Fellow of The Garden Writers Association with more than 25 garden books, he lives and gardens in Northern California. PhotoBotanic - Garden Photography online at www.photobotanic.com. https://photobotanic.com

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12 comments… add one

Cathy December 24, 2012, 7:20 am

The best excuse ever for the shortest post LOL. Have a wonderful rest-of-your-cruise and Happy New Year. Perhaps when you return you can upload the rest of the images. Right now, you can take comfort in the fact that those of us who are stuck here, dealing with frost on the leaves and peals, are thoroughly envious that we aren’t on a cruise as well!

marilyn December 24, 2012, 8:02 am

Thank you for the Christmas gift…it is beautiful and much appreciated!

Amie Gillingham December 24, 2012, 8:34 am

Your camellias did indeed post. Happy Christmas! And make sure you sing “I’m on a Boat” regularly while you’re at sea.

Donna December 24, 2012, 12:13 pm

Hi Saxon and a very Merry Holiday Season to you and your family. Enjoy your vacation and know we ALL appreciate your satellite loading efforts. I enjoyed reading of your post loading undertaking. Since I know all the Photoshop tricks, I am finding your short post fun and so very true at this time of year. People are out having a good time and blogging a bit less.

My next two posts are trying ‘studio shots’ without the studio. Your PhotoBotanic Giclée Rose Prints gave me inspiration. I have a poster to do for a client and really got inspired by your work. Unfortunately, the poster was due yesterday, so I extracted a Gerbera Daisy like you did in this post. The Photoshop stuff is second nature to me but not doing the actual photographing. I really did some learning on my attempted studio photos, so I decided I am going to get my speedlights in softboxes and up in light stands soon. Just having too much fun. I have a studio to go to with my camera club, but nothing beats a small one at home.

Donna – for some reason your Comment took 3 weeks to post (now Jan.18). Hope you had a good holiday. I did not see your studio shots on GWGT. Did you do them ? I am planning some studio macro work with multiple shots and stitching for different focal points so I can maximize depth of field. Will post here at some point. Happy New Year – Saxon

Debra Lee Baldwin December 24, 2012, 12:52 pm

Saxon, even as I’m looking at it, the delicate frost on the camellia is melting on the page. It’s so real, I’m afraid to breathe. I do think, in one simple and short post, you’ve taken your art to a new level. And as for being on a cruise ship, dude, I’m HAPPY for you! Enjoy those cold drinks and the holidays, and memories made with your family.