Yesterday I spent an abosulutely fantastic day photographing the Christmas decorations at Longwood Gardens. Their display is even more incredible this year than last year. My favorite decorations this year were at the Dupont House – home of Pierre Dupont.
Here are some of my favorite Christmas scenes from Dupont House.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
I’ll be posting more of my photos from the 2009 Longwood Gardens Christmas over the weekend.
Strike it Rich Rose (c) 2009 Patty Hankins
Just a couple of links this week
Marc Silber has Why Set Your Photography Goals?
Alexandre Buisse has an HDR Plea on the Luminous-Landscape website
Photofocus has 10 Photo Predictions for 2010 and 7 Tips for Fighting Photographer’s Block
Over the weekend the Washington DC area got hit by a major snowstorm. Here in Bethesda, estimates are we got 24″ of snow. While it still snowing, I took a couple of walks around my neighborhood with my camera. It’s amazing how different common everyday sights look when covered with a fresh snow.
I photographed berries, leaves, trees, and even a few flowers. Here are a few of the snow covered berry photos I took over the weekend. I was surprised at how many different types of berries I spotted in the neighborhood.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
On a recent visit to the conservatory at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland, I had the opportunity to photograph several varieties of anthurium. Anthurium are members of the arum family, and are also known as flamigo flowers or boy flowers.
Most anthurium I”d seen before had a white flower. Occasionally, I’d see another color. You can imagine how surprised I was to see so many varieties in one day. Here are some of my favorites that I photographed
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
When I was growing up, poinsettias were red. Occasionally I’d see a white one. But that was it. In recent years, I’ve seen so many wonderful varieties of poinsettias at local botanical gardens. This year, Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland has a wonderful display of poinsettias in their conservatory. Here are a few of the ones I’ve photographed there this month.
Ice Crystal Poinsettia – wonderful patterns and shades of red, pink and white
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
Mars Marble – white petals with pink patterns on them
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
Christmas Feelings Poinsettia – spectacular bright red flowers
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
Cinnamon Star – with peach and pink petals
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
And finally Cortez Burgandy Poinsettia – with burgandy colored flowers
Pink Cosmos (c) 2009 Patty Hankins
A few links this week
Jerry Avenaim has Six Tips To Improve Holiday Photography – Part II
Virtual Photography Studio has a post on Photographers on Twitter: How to Use It
Monoscope has an example of Avedon’s Instructions to his Printer
Blackstar Rising has Take the High Road with Backstabbing Colleagues and Five Tips for Better Holiday Photos
Bec Thomas has a post on Law Enforcement vs The Photographer
Jim Goldstein has the 2009 Social Media Photography Survey Results
Photofocus has Seven Cold Weather Shooting Tips
I just checked the most recent forecast for Saturday – snow predictions are 6-12″ of snow on Saturday – possibly 12+” over the next 48 hours.
So I’m canceling the photowalk scheduled for tomorrow morning. While I’m sure the snow would give us some great photo opportunities – I think it will be way too dangerous to be walking around DC during the storm.
Thanks everyone for the great response to the photowalk. I was really looking forward to seeing everyone.
Bill and I would like to wish all of you and your families a happy and safe holiday season.
Patty
Bill and I recently returned from a fantastic trip to New Mexico. We attended Alain and Natalie Briot’s Bosque del Apache and White Sands Workshop. As always, Alain and Natalie made sure we were at spectacular places for sunrise and sunset, and provided us with lots of things to think about during the print reviews and instructional sessions. I’ll be posting some of my photos from New Mexico in the coming weeks. This first set are a few bird photographs that I managed to take while I was in New Mexico. If nothing else, this trip proved I really need to practice with my long lens if I want to be able to take even a passable photo of a bird – especially if it’s moving.
It was very cold while we were in New Mexico. These first two photos are of the ducks at Rio Grande Botanical Garden in Albuquerque. They were slipping and sliding on the ice.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
These next two photographs are of some of the snow geese at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The snow geese were a little more stable on the ice than the ducks had been in Albuquerque.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
And finally a Say’s Phoebe, also photographed at Bosque del Apache NWR. Thanks to my friends on Twitter who were able to identify this bird.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
I’ve got lots of landscape photos to edit from our trip. We spent time photographing in several locations including Bosque del Apache NWR, Valley of Fires, Three Rivers Petroglyph site and White Sands National Monument. I’ll be posting photos from all these locations in the coming weeks.
One of my favorite summer wildflowers is the Cardinal flower (lobelia cardinalis). I just love the bright red flowers. They add a great splash of color in late summer and early fall.
This year, I photographed Cardinal flowers in two locations. The first was a single cardinal flower along the Little Brier Gap Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in late July. This was the only Cardinal flower I saw on my summer trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway and in the Smokies.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
A few weeks later, I found one more Cardinal flower at the Wild Gardens of Acadia in Maine’s Acadia National Park.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
I’m hoping that next summer I’ll be able to find a group of Cardinal flowers growing together. I suspect that would make a fantastic photograph.
Another of the thirteen classes of chrysanthemums I photographed at Longwood Gardens Chrysanthemum festival this year were two members of the Irregular Incurve Class of chrysanthemums. According to the National Chrysanthemum Society, irregular incurve chrysanthemums are described as “These are the giant blooms of the chrysanthemum genus. The florets (petals) loosely incurve and make fully closed centers. The lower florets present an irregular appearance and may give a skirted effect.”
The first variety of irregular incurve chrysanthemums I photographed was a wonderful maroon and yellow flower called “Crimson Tide.”
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
This next photo shows the compact center of the flower
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
And one that shows the irregular petals around the edge. I love the way the petals curl
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
The second variety of irregular incurve chrysanthemum I photographed was Houston – a bright yellow flower.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
I hope you’re enjoying my chrysanthemum photos. I’m still editing my photos from the Longwood Gardens Chrysanthemum Festival and I will be posting more of them here in the next few weeks.
