Photography workshops can be magical for both student and instructor. I think I can honestly say every workshop has some magic, there are always those moments when a student suddenly connects with the subject. It gladdens the heart of the instructor to see the students improve. But rarely does every student improve dramatically in the course of[...]
It is a great joy to be hunting for photographs in a garden. Having a camera in hand (or on a tripod) is an excuse to look carefully, to find a photo that will do justice to the beauty of plants. Finding a photo is a deliberate process and I frequently find myself looking for color[...]
Here in California, there have been some rumblings about gardens wasting water. Can we afford water for gardens in an era of limited resources? Isn’t our native habitat beautiful enough? Do we want to have gardens here? Well of course, I am biased. I am a gardener. And yes, we certainly do want to have[...]
The deciduous magnolia trees have started their bloom here in California. The calendar says it is winter, so I suppose we must call them winter flowering trees, but for those of us who garden in California, the season most of the world calls winter, we call spring. This is a summer-dry climate which means winter-wet, and[...]
No doubt if you are reading this you know that gardening is an art. And, as is often true with art, one form inspires another. A recent stroll in the University of California Berkeley Botanical Garden brought so much of this together. Art appreciation is something we do every time we visit a museum, go to[...]