Showing posts with label Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. Show all posts

Holiday lights

McAdenville Christmas
Oliver Lara-Bennett, 1, plays with light-up snowmen and penguin figures in McAdenville on Tuesday December 4, 2012.
Christmas at DSBG
Holiday lights decorate Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, above and below, on Thursday December 6, 2012.
Christmas at DSBG

Drunk Pelican Orchid?

Drunk pelican wearing a hat?
I had an assignment to photograph orchids for a Gaston Gazette 'In Focus' photo page last week at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. They're getting ready for their upcoming 'Orchid Spectacular' and they let me go behind the scenes to their greenhouses to shoot some of the flowers that will be on display (below). I think this flower (above) looks sort of like a drunk pelican wearing a hat and a big smile. Do you see it?
Orchids

'Roid Week 2011

Flowers


With my iPhone I can now take pictures and not only see them instantly, but share them instantly. In the studio the LCD screen on my digital camera (or a separate monitor) provides the instant preview a Polaroid back once did for my predecessors.


Fact is, Polaroids are obsolete for nearly all consumer and professional uses. That doesn't make them any less fun to use, though.


In the right conditions, these cameras can still take surprisingly good pictures, but qualities that would normally be seen as undesirable, like light leaks, faded colors, and lens flare, are part of the charm of shooting with vintage cameras.

For me, Polaroid cameras are toys. It's nice to leave behind the weight (figuratively and literally) of professional digital cameras and the need to make technically good images and just go with the flow. 


You might get something cool out of a Polaroid or you might not, but there's something fun abou pulling, waiting and finally peeling the film apart to see what you got.

In an ironic twist, the internet has helped spawn a new cult following for Polaroids on sites like Flickr


In 2006, one group on Flickr started 'Roid Week, a loosely organized, annual, five-day celebration of all things Polaroid. This year, over 1,400 people contributed nearly 4,000 polaroid images to the group.

These are a few of my shots from my wanderings around town during 'Roid Week 2011. I did break the rules a little by making it a seven-day affair starting on a Wednesday, but being a Polaroid enthusiast has never been about being a conformist.




Loray Mill

Fountain

Spiky