My impression of Giverny

[Kaye Leggett]

For my birthday this year I was given the opportunity to visit Monet's gardens at Giverny. Before we went to the gardens we visited the museum in the village which this year has had an exhibition by 5 photographers of their impression of the garden.......it provided much inspiration for me and really spurred me on to get a couple or so of different shots with a self imposed theme of 'impression'

So here is my take on Monet's Garden

1. One of the exhibitors's images were very dark........so I experimented with producing some of my own. Most have been deleted, but this one I kept as I felt it fitted my brief



2. I loved he way the light was playing in this tree



3. A completely different style



4. We also visited the house adjacent to the garden and I glimpsed a the garden through the window once



5. and then again through a different window



I hope you too now have an impression of the garden

C&C welcome too

.

[Geoff F]

#1 is an interesting idea, Kaye, but I wonder about the top right corner area where there is quite a lot of nothing; if that makes any sense.

Possibly crop a little differently to reduce that area while still retaining the overall darkish appearance?

#2 is a tricky type of shot which has worked well. My only 'complaint' is about a small strange horizontal 'light line' about half way up the left side. You have to look closely to see it, but I would clone it out.

#3 has far too much out of focus foreground. A good idea but it needed quite a bit of 'organisation time' before shooting.

#4 is a good idea which has worked well. Possibly a small over bright area in the garden but not a serious problem.

The last one was a challenging idea which is almost working but something doesn't seem quite right for me. Maybe a slight crop from the top and left side?

[Shadowman]

Nice series, the low angle flower shot is my favorite of the bunch. The dark garden has good sense of mystery, however it would take some effort to get a good print from this scene. Garden through the curtains works very well.

[Donald]

For my birthday this year I was given the opportunity to visit Monet's gardens at Giverny.

Someone has impeccably good taste. What a lucky lady.

I'm not going to comment on each of the images. Others have already done that. Rather, I'm trying to see them as an album/collection of images to remember a day/an event and that gives others a sense of that day.

On that basis, I think they are enormously successful. You have certainly allowed me to wallow in what I perceive to be the calm and glorious atmosphere of the place.

[Rebel]

Kaye these are great, and being a Monet fan... you have definitely done his garden justice!

[Rob Ekins]

Kaye,
I am very jealous, I have been to Paris twice and on both occasions there were rail issues that stopped me getting to Giverny.

All of the images have there merit but I love the view out the window, I am so glad you didn't decide to pop a flash inside, the view feels really natural.

Oh, and for those anticipating taking your bride to Paris while on your Honeymoon...... The louvre is shut on Tuesdays, learned that one the hard way

[Kaye Leggett]

Thanks all for your comments.
Rob our bete noir this time was restaurants that were closed as we were 'out of season'
Matt, Donald and John - I'm glad you saw them as a collection. Travelling so much this year has meant thousands of photo opportunities (I have taken over 10,000 photos) so setting myself tasks/challenges to improve my groups of images is something I have experimented with.
Geoff, your comments are as ever very helpful. However your comment on the third one interests me most as I played with out of focus to a degree that day, as I wanted the 'impression' feel. I have some other images of these flowers so will revisit to see if I can improve the feel.

[Geoff F]

With #3, Kaye, the problem is that there is a large area which is out of focus in the foreground then a single well focused bloom and it all seems rather 'bitty'.

If there had been more of a solid block which was out of focus by the same amount I think it would have worked better. Alternatively having the well focused part in the foreground fading into an out of focus background would have worked well.

Or a merge of two or more focus points, but that is very difficult to achieve when shooting real wild subjects.

A different option may be to crop tighter on the sides and go to a portrait ratio. One of the main problem areas for me is that out of focus bud just to the right of centre which I find particularly distracting. If that was removed I think there are several alternatives.

[IzzieK]

Kaye...I love #1 very much that I kept going back to look at it. This is a very beautiful series. Happy birthday! Do you ever go home?

[Wavelength]

Very good set

[Kaye Leggett]

Thanks Izzie and Nandakumar for looking. Izzie, we are home........I won't promise not going away again though.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Very nice set.
I think my sister visited there. Is there a wheel barrow in the garden?

[Kaye Leggett]

Thanks Alan.
The garden is very much still gardened with wheelbarrows and gardeners in abundance - there are more gardeners now than when Monet lived there. There are even two boatmen to remove leaves from the lily pond...they kept getting in the way of the perfect shot !