This post is a continuation of yesterday's post, in which I discussed how my wife and I have finally purchased a dSLR, the Nikon D60. We had an unexpected hour or so of time last Saturday, and so used it at the Missouri Botanical Garden. All of the following pictures were taken at the garden.
I've loved the multicolored windows in this greenhouse as long as I can remember. Even back in the film days, I took multiple pictures of these windows. Just a month or so ago, I took more with the Canon A520 point and shoot! I like how this shot turned out, where the focus is actually on the hanging plant in the foreground, and the windows are not technically the subject of the photo.
In recent years, the garden has had major special exhibits of artwork. This year, until October, the garden has 40 sculptures by the artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002) on display. All are unique, mosaic inlaid pieces, some of which you can climb on and crawl through. This skull is situated near the Kemper center for home gardening. If you click to expand this picture, it will be easier to see the one and only, the beautiful, the sunglasses wearing, the ex-gymnist, the artistic, the singer, the actress, the mother of my children and my wife...wait, that didn't really come out right. She is not the mother of my children and the mother of my wife. She is the mother of my children AND is my wife. She is in the teeth of the skull.
Last year's major exhibit at the garden was the Chihuly glass exhibit. After the exhibit ended, the garden purchased a couple of the pieces. The installations above the rose garden trellises have stayed, as well as a large hanging piece in the entrance building, floating "onions" in front of the Climatron, and some glass spikes inside the Climatron. I like the shot about against the sky, but realized later I should have set the exposure compensation a bit for this shot. As a result it is slightly underexposed. I corrected this in the GIMP, but ended up posting the original as I also liked the darker moodiness in this shot. There's a lot that could be done with this, but the shot you see here is right out of the camera, except for scaling for the web.
This final shot is close to the previous one in location. The roses are actually in front of a fence that is part of the trellis. In the background, you can see the matching glass installation and trellis to the one that is in the previous picture. It's nice to be able to easily control my depth of field, again! This was taken, again, in the rose garden section of the garden.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures from today and yesterday. I've certainly come to love this camera in a short period of time. I'm sure at least 50% of my love just comes from using an SLR again after a few years of using point and shoots and seriously cutting back on film expenses, but I am extremely happy with the operation of the D60, too.
Back to the usual silliness tomorrow!
Beautiful pics! The Botanical Gardens are on my List of Things To Do This Summer. Thanks for reminding me.
Posted by: monkeysmomma | June 06, 2008 at 04:14 PM