Thinking of saints and poets at the community garden

Thinking of saints and poets at the community garden

Blendon Township Community Garden - My Final Photo May 14, 2013

Blendon Township Community Garden – My Final Photo May 14, 2013

It’s that time of the year where the community garden at Blendon Township begins to take shape as the gardeners till, row, prepare, and plant their small plots for what they hope will be a great harvest of fresh vegetables.

There was a time where the fields adjacent to the cemetery were off limits out of respect for the dead. My son and I were once angrily tossed out when we started fielding practice almost in the same spot that is now home to a community feeding their needs with produce and a sense of community involvement.

When we were told to leave I thought to myself that a father and son playing baseball in an open field next to the cemetery would be looked upon by the neighbors as a joyous expression of the celebration of life, not disrespect for the dead.

I’ve always been a fan of Thorton Wilder’s “Our Town” and its exposition of our lives. I love the third act and its intention to demonstrate how most people don’t understand the value of the simple commonplace events that create the tapestry of their lives.

I thought about the third act as we left the field trying to remember the exact line when the stage manager responds after he is asked if anyone realizes how important life is.

“No. The saints and poets, maybe – they do some.”

There must be saints and poets working today at Blendon Township.

Note: “Our Town,” the movie, is on Netflix.

Choosing colorful subjects to not illustrate the story

Choosing colorful subjects to not illustrate the story

Red wagons with yellow daisy plant - My Final Photo for May 11, 2013

Red wagons with yellow daisy plant – My Final Photo for May 11, 2013

It’s a cold day in May. What to do except go to the garden store to see what people are buying?

They were buying what you would expect from greenhouses filled to overflowing with flowering annuals and perennials, and vegetable plants.

There is really not anything new you can shoot at a garden center with the exception of some new type of plant with a strange, genetically varied blossom. Hoover Gardens is one of the places I haunt, visiting often during the year to see what may be different.

Searching for the perfect plant

Searching for the perfect plant

Today was no different so I decided to do a still-life using three of the stored red wagons and one of the yellow daisy plants instead of continuing to watch for someone sorting their way through pink, purple, yellow, white, and variegated varieties of spring plants.

If this were a standard news feature assignment any photo I shot of shoppers would have been publishable. It’s difficult to shoot a bad photo with so many repeating patterns, colors, design shapes, and people available. Setting up a still-life as I planned would have stepped out of the bounds of photojournalism and not be permitted. I wasn’t on assignment but shooting for a personal journal and possible;e stock sales.

The composition began with a great deal of luck. There were three unused wagons sitting next to each other in the open shade on the northern side of the outdoor shelter.

I chose a single plant with the tallest and most prominent flower placing it just off center in the center wagon.

Shot with the 70-200mm lens with a narrow depth of field. Shot a variety of  focal lengths sometimes tight on the plant with others frames wide enough to include more of the background.

My final edit is a horizontal frame that cropped out the distracting background. It also leaves space around the slightly off-center plant for headline or story type that might be necessary.

You can see the variations and other photos at The Gardiner Collection.

A little color on a rainy day

A little color on a rainy day

Daffodils and flowering trees at Inniswood Gardens

One of my facebook friends commented today how much she likes rainy days because the colors become so saturated and rich. I agree and often travel on rainy days just so I can find bursts of color drenched with a day’s rain.

Although it wasn’t far from home My Final Photo for the day came at the end of a bike ride when I found other photographers admiring the colors of Inniswood Gardens.

A little color on a rainy day

A little color on a rainy day

Daffodils and flowering trees at Inniswood Gardens

One of my facebook friends commented today how much she likes rainy days because the colors become so saturated and rich. I agree and often travel on rainy days just so I can find bursts of color drenched with a day’s rain.

Although it wasn’t far from home My Final Photo for the day came at the end of a bike ride when I found other photographers admiring the colors of Inniswood Gardens.

A single tulip, and not much more

A single tulip, and not much more

One red tulip blooming in the garden in front of city hall.

One red tulip blooming in the garden in front of city hall.

It was one of those days. It was raining off and on. The cloud was a giant gray covering. I was tired. My feet hurt.

Still, I searched for the sometimes elusive My Final Photo.

Usually making a selection from my day’s shoot is simple. The best photo of the day stands out. On a day like this nothing but a red tulip against a green sea of not yet blooming relatives is the best that I could muster.

The only thing I can good about it is how great it will work in a layout if the editor needed to reverse copy out of the green space.

That’s probably not a bad selling point.

A few of the other choices.

April 11, 2013 April 11, 2013 April 11, 2013 
April 11, 2013
 April 11, 2013