Note the hint of fall color down this path past the Ash trees…..
This will be a bit of a challenge. Photos are supposed to tell a story, so I present a series of photos without comment.
The set up: I was in Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, Oregon looking to add two photos into my lecture “Finding the Photo”. I always try to add photos that are current and local in all my presentations, so the day before my workshop I set out to find a photo myself. I assumed I could find something in the Arboretum and headed toward the Maple section hoping to find some fall color.
The lesson tip, from the upcoming PhotoBotanic Garden Photography Workshop, is to look for an interesting point of view.
Look what I found as I headed down the path:
A simple exercise. I hope you followed as I pointed my camera through the branches and up under the orange foliage shrub, Cotinus ‘Grace’. Backlit from underneath any fall foliage tree or shrub, you will find a stained glass window when you look up. Be sure to overexpose by about two stops.
In my personal work I am increasingly turning to abtraction, interpretations of what I see. My vision has changed radically in recent years and I find when I am in a garden I look beyond the details into shapes and patterns that express fleeting impressions. Perhaps I have been admiring too much Jackson Pollack…
The image looking out from under the Ash trees toward the glowing Cotinus started as this raw image, progressed to a glowing pattern, and was reduced to an abstract expressionist charcoal drawing.
I am enjoying this path to art. Hooray for gardens.
Latest posts by Saxon Holt (see all)
- The Green New Deal - November 19, 2018
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