Longwood Gardens

September 2008

The forecast called for some great weather so we each packed a bag full of gear and headed off to Longwood for the day.  I say "for the day", not our original intention, but rather a 2-3 hour visit then have lunch and head for home.  Instead it turned into another 6 hour journey that, fortunately, our aging bodies can still do.  We decided to forgo the tripod this time around to reduce weight but that turned out to be a mistake so we did the best we could hand-held.

A couple events were scheduled for the day:  1) A display of glass gourds and pumpkins by Cohn-Stone Studios in CA and 2) the National Dahlia Society Show.  There were many other photographic opportunities besides these two events.  I, for one, was amazed to find roses in bloom as we walked the grounds and, of course, the water lily display was as attractive as ever.  There were also numerous displays of other "Autumn Colors" such as pumpkin, gourds, and mums.

There were a lot of DSLR toting photographers about.  Many more than usual and we suspect the Dahlia Society displays might have been the draw.  Kathy put her Sigma 70-300mm macro lens to good use while I experimented with a +1 close-up filter on my Nikon 55-200mm.  Of course I couldn't resist taking some infrared images as well.

Here is a sample of the 300 or so images captured between us.  Click on any to see a larger version

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