Longwood, Take Two

As readers of my last post know, I had a small mishap when I visited Longwood Gardens in early October – my Nikon D600 and its 16-35mm f/4 lens refused to part company easily after about an hour into my trip. So for the remaining three hours I used my iPhone 5 with various apps (primarily Camera+ and Pro HDR) to take photos. You can see those here.

Then I headed home – only to have a much bigger mishap in the form of my car’s fuel pump giving out. Long story short, I ended up renting a car about thirty minutes south of Longwood while the car sat in a garage awaiting for a new Subaru fuel pump to arrive and be installed.

So the next Tuesday, I returned to Kennett Square before picking up the car and took along my D300 because the D600 and lens had been shipped off to Nikon for de-coupling.  I really missed the full-frame aspect, but the D300 is a trooper and I came back with some good shots. Here’s a sampling of them, and yes, I will take a DSLR over my iPhone any day when I’m after seriously good images. . .

This photo of the elephant ear’s annual beds shows how much more can be done with a good DSLR than a smartphone’s camera, in terms of color range and contrast.

Agave and red geraniums in a lead planter near the Flower Walk.

Chrysanthemums, salvias and agaves in an outdoor group of planters.

A view of the cannas from the other end of the Conservatories

Inside the Conservatories, a small water feature in front of yellow cannas.

Coleus brightening an evergreen inside a Conservatory walk near the orchid room.

A water lily in the water gardens next to the Conservatories.

Longwood via iPhone

In early October, my camera club organized a field trip to Longwood Gardens. I had agreed to co-lead the trip, after having helped with a presentation on garden photography the previous month. Since I hadn’t been to Longwood in a while, I was looking forward to photographing its early-fall glories with my new D600. That lasted for about an hour after we arrived. Then calamity struck. The wide-angle lens I was using turned recalcitrant and wouldn’t detach from the camera.

So for the rest of the day, I used my iPhone. I can’t claim these are terrific images, but once again it had become the best camera I had with me (since I’d foolishly forgotten to bring my D300 as a backup body).

Next time there will be D300 photos from a return trip I made a week later (for reasons too sad and banal to bother with here). But for now, enjoy the iPhone 5 images.

In the conservatories. Taken with the HDR Pro app, which accounts for the blurring of the hanging baskets at the top of the image.

Conservatory chairs.

A mixed planting of copper plant, coleus and ‘Lion’s tail’ plant in the conservatories.

The “living wall” bathroom area in the conservatories! Behold, and be amazed.

The end of the summer annuals (with a large New Zealand flax in the background)

Mums were just starting to bloom.

Orange zinnas and red cannas around one of the fountain areas.

Pierce’s Woods

Elephants ears flanked by solidago on the way to the Flower Walk.

Another view of the Elephants ears annuals border, this time showing some salvia more clearly.

A lushly planted container near the cafe.