Helpful Posts Helpful Posts:  0
Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Filoli Gardens

  1. #1
    mythlady's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Capitola, CA
    Posts
    744
    Real Name
    Elise

    Filoli Gardens

    Hi everyone -- Filoli is a historic mansion and gardens near me -- the mansion was used as the one in the old show, Dynasty, if anyone remembers that. Once a month they have "Artist Access Days," when painters and photographers are allowed in at 3:30, when it closes to the public, and can stay until 6:30. You pay for the privilege, of course, but it's glorious -- it's a huge place, and when I went on Thursday with a couple of folks from my photography club, there were maybe 20 people in the whole place. I walked around for hours, taking pictures, and even sat down to paint a little in my watercolor journal (at which I really am awful). It was a great time -- the only problem was the wind, which was rather too brisk for photography, but we managed somehow. I have a whole set on flickr here, but thought I'd share a couple of excerpts with you all. I'm not happy with a couple in the set and am still working on them.

    #1
    Filoli Gardens

    #2
    Filoli Gardens

    #3
    Filoli Gardens

    #4
    Filoli Gardens

    Comments welcome --
    Last edited by mythlady; 21st May 2011 at 05:56 PM.

  2. #2
    mythlady's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Capitola, CA
    Posts
    744
    Real Name
    Elise

    Re: Filoli Gardens

    Note -- I'm aware the pics are too large -- sorry!! I'm replacing them. Egad, I'm so absent-minded sometimes --

    Later: There. Fixed. Crisis averted.
    Last edited by mythlady; 21st May 2011 at 05:57 PM.

  3. #3
    jiro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Manila, Philippines
    Posts
    3,804
    Real Name
    Willie or Jiro is fine by me.

    Re: Filoli Gardens

    I already see a lot of good shot opportunities just by looking at image #1, Elise. I wish I could go there some time and have a blast, too. #4 is a definite winner for me here. You handled the bright sunlight (or was it during sunset?) on this one. Thank you very much for sharing!

  4. #4
    mythlady's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Capitola, CA
    Posts
    744
    Real Name
    Elise

    Re: Filoli Gardens

    Thanks, Jiro -- I did darken/vignette the last one. It was very bright sunshine, and will be throughout all the summer months. Last time I went, it was April, which is better, I think, or maybe October, which I think is the last one. Then the light would be fading toward the end of the time. There are also a lot of places that are in shadow, but the wind was so bad that it was hard to capture those on that particular day.

    Here's one of those that I managed to get:

    Filoli Gardens

  5. #5

    Re: Filoli Gardens

    I'm glad that it didn't rain, after all. I've been looking forward to these, Elise!

    They're all lovely, of course. I especially like the light in #2 and that it's not the typical shot. It makes me want to be there. I like #4, also, but what's going on with the shadows? Is there a vignette? I'm off to look at the rest of your photos.

    It's good to have you posting, here, again! Kind of miss you - even though we Blog visit. It's hard to blog and do CiC, at the same time, isn't it? I can't imagine having photography clubs and flickr participation and classes, etc., too.

    edit: Oh, I see that you vignetted the last one. What's it like without? I love long shadows. Were they that bad? They didn't add to the sense of time of day (which would be lovely considering the sundial)?

  6. #6
    mythlady's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Capitola, CA
    Posts
    744
    Real Name
    Elise

    Re: Filoli Gardens

    Here's the original -- I darkened the sides to highlight the sundial. I'm bummed that the framing is askew.

    Filoli Gardens

    I'm very happy with the one of the foxgloves -- for once, I took my wide angle lens, a very good one that I have almost never used. It was perfect for that shot.

  7. #7

    Re: Filoli Gardens

    Quote Originally Posted by mythlady View Post
    Here's the original -- I darkened the sides to highlight the sundial. I'm bummed that the framing is askew.

    Filoli Gardens

    I'm very happy with the one of the foxgloves -- for once, I took my wide angle lens, a very good one that I have almost never used. It was perfect for that shot.
    Elise, your first edit that drew attention to the sundial was effective. I'm very empathetic, here, about you not having quite framed the shot symmetrically. In this original shot, though, the blue of the flowers adds so much! Is there anyway to help the shot by cropping, instead - isn't there a perspective distortion tool in PS? er, you know about those options but you didn't want to do that? Too bad that you couldn't be there when the shadows were longer - and the light a little softer - "days gone by"-like. Anyway, perhaps you framed it like that because you were focusing on getting the angle on the sundial just right so that you could see the gnomon??? (Is that the right word?)

    It's interesting, I think that I've been out with my camera for too long, this evening. I'm starting to think about different angles and how I would take try to capture this. I'm wanting to walk round the silly thing and look at it from all angles. (Something tells me that I'm going to be dreaming about dof, tonight. Meh!)
    Last edited by Katy Noelle; 22nd May 2011 at 02:56 AM.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •