Wordless Wednesday ~ The Turning Year

A lazy morning checking out the work of…

Schuyler Samperton

Fun Indeed!

 

 

You can see more of her portfolio here.

Happy Sundaying.

A Tale Of Two Gardens - Part 1

Earlier this month we spent a most pleasant weekend garden visiting and cake hunting. I have been meaning to post more about the garden visits so will do so before June slips away. Both gardens are in Shropshire and are within a couple of miles of each other. Depending on your energy levels they could be visited in one day or you may prefer to spread the visits out and linger longer at both.

Our first port of call was Hodnet Hall Gardens in the village of Hodnet, some twelve miles away from the town of Market Drayton. We had visited once before but memories of it were a blur. Images of a lot of space, lakes and a rather unique tea room were at the back of my mind but I could not recall any specific planting details. The main reason for this recent visit in fact was to attend a Plant Hunters' Fair which was being held in the grounds that weekend. These specialist plant fairs are held mainly in Cheshire, North Wales, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire and take place in some fine garden venues. They are well worth looking out for.

So our first port of call was the plant fair which offered plenty to peruse and plenty to tempt. Himself headed back to the vehicle with my purchases before we set off to meander through some of the sixty three acres of gardens. There have been gardens at Hodnet since the eleventh century but most of the current gardens were developed during the twentieth century. In the 1920s the owner Brigader Heber-Percy made a decision to flood the valley which lies below the house. During the next forty years the pool margins and slopes were planted with various shrubs including spring flowering magnolias, rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias. He was helped in this project by the renowned plantsman EA Bowles. The present owner has added to the structure with herbaceous planting. I think that we were most fortunate with the timing of our visit which coincided with the gardens being at their peak in terms of seasonal colour and interest. The late spring played its part too as some of the flowers we encountered would normally not still be out at the beginning of June. Everywhere we looked there was an absolute riot of colour whilst our noses were assailed by powerful scents. A magical moment occurred when gazing up at the handkerchief tree, which you can see in the bottom left hand photo, when the sound of church bells started to drift through the air.  A celebratory peal we supposed for a bride and groom on a perfect sunny Saturday afternoon.

We would like to return there later in the year as I'm sure that the gardens would be splendid in the autumn. However sadly there does not seem to be an opportunity to do this, as there appear to be no open days between the middle of September and late November. Maybe this might change in the future. The gardens are not open each week but have specific open days throughout the year, which you can check on the Hodnet Hall Gardens website. They are also open by appointment to groups of over 25 people.

Final image of the day is of this monster that himself spotted lurking in the foliage of yellow tree peony ~

Neither of us had seen such a creature before so out came the wildlife books as soon as we got home. We are fairly sure that it is a cockchaffer beetle, otherwise known as a May bug, which too was another late arrival  on the scene this year. On to the second garden later this week.

No. 21

No. 21 Resort 2014

Images via style.com

So maybe…

Or maybe not.

We are leaving for Europe in a few weeks.

Not the Europe you often think of…or I often think of

but a more “Baltic” form.

Actually we will be visiting three different countries

and would LOVE to know how best to really see them.

Inhale them.

Wanna play?

Wanna guess?

And if you can guess….wanna give some insider tips?

Purty please? Cherry on top.

Lake Esrum Sunset

I don't often venture into the world of HDR, but when I am faced with a huge lighting challenge like the one in the scene above there really is no other way to get the full dynamic range on offer. If I exposed for the setting sun the boat in the foreground was diminished to murky blacks and greys, and if I exposed for the foreground the sunset became a wash of blown out highlights. Cue bracketing function on camera, roll on Photomatix (I never upgraded from version 3!) tweak in PSP X5, and voila! A simple exposure blend is enough for me, I try to keep these looking as natural as possible given the circumstances because overworked HDR is an abomination to behold... at least to me.

Quote Of The Day

Wordless Wednesday ~ Sunbathing

Tibi

Tibi Resort 2014

Images via style.com

Jangera

Beautiful, refined and luxurious pieces for your little ones by Jungera. When Asha Mines (Rick Owens’ creative assistant), became a mother, she found it very hard to find baby clothing that spoke to her and reflected her style, so she decided to create her own brand (named after her son Era).

via here

Campari on Ice - another three light product photograph

Same basic lighting set-up as the photograph in the previous post.

Three Light Product Photo of Baileys' Liqueur

A (reasonably) simple three light product shot of a bottle of Baileys' Liqueur. But how to set up the lights to get this effect? Answer below the photograph of the very yummy Baileys'.

The rim highlight you see on the edge of the bottle is from two strip lights behind the subject, one on either side and about 10" out from each side.
The background light is a gridded reflector with a sheet of round plastic inside to give the smooth glow.
Finally a snoot about 3' directly above the camera, aimed at an angle down and onto the bottle to light up the label.
The bottle is standing on a small sheet of glass out of a cheap frame someone bought me for Christmas, cleaned and polished... but the edge is a little too rough for my liking.
The sheet of glass is standing on four drinking glasses.

Below you can see the subject with each of the three lights on individually so you can see what each one does and you can also see the sheet of glass and the glasses.

This took about 30 minutes to set up and then the actual shooting was all over in just a couple of minutes, then it took a few more minutes to transfer the images to my computer and about 10 minutes to process, and then another 30 minutes to break the lighting setup down again! Which just goes to show, the actual photographing is really just a small part of what photographers do! :-)

Habitat lamp find for Father’s Day….

We have a room in the casa

that has been relegated to the office. His office.

I found a fantastic lamp the other day….well not the whole lamp. The base was blah…but the shade was a keeper

Heavy made of brass…shiny inside.  Dusty out.

I paired it with a hatless base

also from habitat….it was hanging out in the garage up to no apparent good.

Voila…Happy Father’s Day.

wait…

We also found these great think madmen Old fashioned glasses for the Dad.

Okay, friend, name your poison….

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.  ~Mae West

Great Finds

Kitchen safe timed lock, more info here



iCoil headphone cord organizer, more info here



Loop Tea Strainer by Kinto , buy here

Singing in the shower….

You either do

or …you don’t.

BUT…Singing in an outdoor shower

is a whole other proposition altogether.

Jane Coslick’s polky-dot shower here

I feel a song coming on…

Photos from Pinterest