Garden Photography for 2 whole days

I must admit really looking forward to this part of the course. Only 2 days but my favorite subject. An additional 6 people joined our group, all either on next years terrestrial course or following the new online OCGD pgdip course.

Having it broken down into simple chunks and advised it was about Making not just Taking photo's one realises, once a again, that it's not all that difficult to do but like driving you have to learn the basic chunks off pat - remember how terrifying the old mirror signal manoeuvre thing was the first 100 times?! I do - Taking it our into the field was fun but the Oxford Botanic Gardens probably groaned as we descended on it to practice panning, isolating, story telling and action shots.

To tell truth I got a bit flustered, my lovely and reliable Nikon D70 was playing merry havoc once set to the A (aperture priority) setting and though the book covers all settings, once you start fiddling it becomes like winning the lottery with chances of getting it just right at 1:14,000,000

Finally it played ball, sort of and I focused (pun intended) on the subject matter along with the technical side of making the picture.

On our second day the documentary nature of photography featured and telling the story of Waterperry gardens in 8 shots was our task: establishing, overviewing, detailing and of course making it human interest. I met a lovely couple who were interested in what we were up to (20+ camera laden students raised an eyebrow or two) only to discover fellows of the Leica Society. Small world. Better images today although still plenty of scope for improvement on the Landscape work, I am a macro girl through and through and am toying with the idea of acquiring a lensbaby to further those studies.....just need to sell something first.

Final homework was to post to flickr with the results

Trentham in Winter

Trentham Estate gardens are a recently restored treasure (2003-2008) with the formal Italian garden plantings being designed by Tom Stuart Smith. In the regenerated formal gardens the planting reflects prairie style so a mix of ornate traditional structure with stunningly modern planting. Apparently they planted 73,000 plants and then there are the spring bulbs. A year round garden? well certainly a 3 season garden.

From Collages

The cold crisp winter day made the most of the structure given by the tall plantings and evergreens. Stunning displays with 'Death' in all it's glory.

And of course the perfect weather and location to play with the new Nikon Lens

It's hard to deny

It is indeed hard to deny just how compelling this PGDipl course at Oxford College of Garden Design is and the projects we're completing. I find myself planning books to read on trains, radio programs, TV programs - I watched TV for the first time in 2 weeks yesterday but it was Phillipe Starke doing an 'Apprentice style' TV program for product designers so that feels not too far from the subject of modern design.

The experience of being able to immerse oneself completely in a subject one enjoys, to explore many aspects of it is quite novel for me. A couple of more experienced friends have warned it may lose it's glamour and this is when the determination to succeed must kick in, but frankly I have done jobs in the past that I have loathed and done well at them, somehow I cannot imagine it ever being as hard as that. Call me an optimist.

My laptop is pared down, defragged (twice), almost backedup online and majorly cleansed in preparation for the lectures tomorrow. I have fiddled with Picasa and Flickr, blospot and my .NEF images because I can't wait until tomorrow to get all the info (impatient moi? VERY)

Now I need to dig out my manual for my 'old' D70 and work out another level of detail on getting more saturation in my images

Week II - part 1

Travel & Parking = bete noir. That is all I am saying on that front.

Having printed and read notes for GD 103 and 104 we started on GD 101 and 102. Not to worry though, AM wandered through the centuries (6000bc to 1600ad) with engaging enthusiasm and not one of us fell asleep (per his prediction!). The Timeline project launched and the essays giving an intriguing offer to write on a subject of our choosing related to gardens or the 20th Century. Something we're interested in and perhaps will become expert in. The example of 'Concrete and its role in the Modern Garden Design' was perhaps not to my taste but mayhap someone will chose it!

A quick session from D to give clarification on the expectations for our soft landscape portfolios - one the season, one plant/color combination. This is going to be a lot of work and with some work they will be magnificent presentation packs.


Ben Nicholson projects were so varied and interesting to see everyone's interpretation. How I missed the words 'mounting board' I don't know so mine was a tad flatter than the rest. It seemed others finished the in almost no time, if tales are to be believed, making me think I am a more than a tad slow at the cutting and sticking side of projects. Hope not to many more of them in the pipeline!

And a note to any prospective clients, you WON'T be getting these as an optional extra ;)

Downloaded the flickr uploader for XP which apparently can't see .NEF images, GROAN. Maybe its my settings??. So much for being an IT whizz. Today is more like IT Idiot!

Picasa tagging images from yesterday visits. Rousham truly was glorious. Especially those Dahlia....

From 2009_09_30