I’ve always thought of Chicago as a great American city where urban greening, ecological landscaping, and beauty for beauty’s own sake matters. The Lurie Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago’s immense park system and green roof program are enough to make any nature lover’s heart sing with joy. But when you add the magnificent containers, window boxes, [...]
When trying to find a photo in a garden, a key concept is to look for leading lines. These are lines you, the photographer, find in a garden that can lead the viewer’s eye into the photo. These lines can frame your composition and lead to focal points as well, but fundamentally they must start [...]
One of my first first lessons to students who take my garden photography workshops is about “seeing”. If you don’t stop to think what you are seeing, what it is that excites you about a garden, then you will end up with a photo that will be little more than literally, a snapshot of time. [...]
A couple of years ago while visiting the Lurie Garden at Millennium Park in Chicago I was attracted to several groupings of a striking yellow-green tufted grass that I did not recognize. It was compact in its growth habit (10-12″H x 10-12″W), and had silvery inflorescences that were about 18″H. It was growing in full [...]
One of the highlights of summer was my first trip to Europe, specifically to Piet & Anja Oudolf’s nursery and private garden in The Netherlands. I went for their Grass Days. Much like Fran Sorin (as she noted in her fabulous three part interview last month), I am a huge fan of Oudolf’s unique style. His gardens [...]