As soon as I stepped out the back door of Christina’s house I knew her garden was going to provide all sorts of photo opportunities. Oakland, California garden designer Sherry Merciari had referred me to Christina when I asked about gardens with no lawn, but I didn’t know what to expect. When I saw the [...]
What we see and what we capture with the camera are often different; too often if you are not careful to photograph with intent. What my mind’s eye sees when I enter my garden this time of year are yellow daffodils. But actually there are only a very few. In my mind’s eye I am [...]
I was photographing Quarryhill Botanical Garden for a magazine story last month and stumbled across these huge gorgeous red berries of Cornus kousa. Why did I immediately think of Christmas? Before I go into a bit of lore, let me explain about “stumbling across” the picture. I was in the middle of the garden working [...]
When I went looking for fall color in my garden, I did not expect to see a red hole into another universe. In fact, I did realize it was there until I contemplated my original picture (to follow at the end). The great master of black and white photography, Ansel Adams learned to pre-visualize his [...]
Sing it Carly! “Anticipation, anticipation/Is making me late/Is keeping me waiting.” Maybe Carly Simon was a horticulturist, because it strikes me lately that no one knows more about anticipation than a gardener. If you told me there’s any pursuit that is more about delayed gratification, about waiting for green dreams to be realized, about being just plain [...]