Keep looking
Posted on | October 13, 2009 | 1 Comment
The first weekend this month, I taught a Master Photography workshop with my friend Roger Foley at Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, Pa. Our schedule called for presentations and lectures on Friday night, a two hour shooting session in the garden early Saturday morning and again Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. In between the photography sessions, we would do class reviews of the images captured, Q & A and additional lectures. The forecast for Saturday had rain, showers, cloudy or a mix of all the above until late afternnon. We decided to be very flexible with the schedule and let the weather guide us.
Saturday morning Linda and I arrived at the gardens at 6:45 – just before sunrise. “Look behind us,” said Linda. The fields across from the entrance were filled with mist and the pre-dawn light was a rainbow. Before I knew it, four of us were trying to capture the images before the sun rose and the mist disappeared. We had great lighting and decided to stay in the gardens shooting until 10am. At 10:05 it poured. By the time we edited the morning images, had lunch and did the class review, it was 3:30 in the afternoon. The rain had moved on and the lighting was as good as it was in the morning.
During the garden shooting sessions neither Roger nor I do any photography but instead keep moving around to talk with each student. Late on Saturday afternoon, we found ourselves at the Terrace Garden. As we talked over the progress of each student, we noticed the setting sunlight on the Terrace Garden. At one point, Roger asked me what time it was. “5:35 pm” I replied. I knew then that on Sunday evening, after the workshop finished, Roger and I would find ourselves back at that spot.
Well, the class ended around 3:30pm on Sunday and by 4:30 we were in the gardens with our gear. I didn’t see Roger until I climbed the hill to the Terrace Garden. It was 5:32. Both Roger and I kept moving around to capture different angles. It was beautiful. In about fifteen minutes a cloud came over and temporarily killed the golden sunlight. I had captured a number of different images and took the opportunity the flat lighting afforded to explore another angle. What I found caught my breath. I ran for the camera and managed to get a series of shots as the sun completely disappeared behind the trees and the garden was in complete shade.
Here is one of my favorite images from that group.
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One Response to “Keep looking”
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March 8th, 2010 @ 9:20 am
Spectacular. Thanks for sharing.