San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling
When the Light’s too Bright,
Play in the Shadows
Debbie Teashon
During the last weekend of June 2013, Garden Bloggers from the United States, Canada, and England descended upon the Bay area for three days of garden tours and fun. We stayed in the heart of the city the weekend of Pride, just after the Supreme Court said no to Proposition 8. Our hotel, The Westin, stood a block away from the parade. Ecstatic for LGBTQ, and honored to be there, history played itself out, as people celebrated newfound freedom.
Garden bloggers weren't the only ones in town. People from across the country descended upon the region to usher in a new civil rights era. The news reported over a million people descended upon the city that weekend.
That same weekend, the region played host to the hottest days on record. We heard the heat warnings issued for the weekend and endured record-breaking temperatures set throughout the Bay area.
Fortunately, the Garden Blogger's Fling gave us the luxury of air-conditioned buses that escorted us from garden to garden. When the heat turned up, we grabbed cold drinks, found any seat available on the bus, and plopped our sweaty bodies down. We found luxurious comfort in cooling down during the more extended drives between gardens.
The challenge to take decent photographs during the San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling tour became enormous. The hot temperature made me want to crawl under a canopy of palm trees and nap, not schlep around a heavy tripod and camera. And bright sun during the heat of the day poured horrendous, harsh lighting on any subjects that caught my eye.
I searched for contrasts and textures, shadows, and reflections, to try to salvage the days. I documented more shade gardens than full sun ones, and found myself drawn to many water features in the gardens.
I decided to begin documenting the weekend with my outtakes. I know. I know, it is a backward approach. The heat, coupled with frustration, hindered shooting decent photos in the amazingly bright light. The outtakes are as much a part of the story.
When the sun moved high overhead, I photographed mostly in the shade when I could. Some photographs I took, regardless that the light sucked.
When I returned home, I opened up Photoshop and played with the not so stellar photos to see what lemons I could sweeten!
Here are my outtakes of what I found interesting during the Garden Bloggers Fling in the bay area surrounding San Francisco.
In an urban inner courtyard garden designed by Organics Mechanics, I found this chair in a far corner. A fire escape from the garden's apartments cast a stunning, stark shadow across the stucco wall.
A wall covered in corrugated steel, flanks the urban Matt Gil Sculpture Garden. A sculpture rises high above the ground, and the play of light on the steel and sculpture made photographing in full sun a pleasure. For perspective on how giant this sculpture is, corrugated steel comes in four by eight-foot sheets. When I stare at this long enough, I see rainbows.
The grand ornate gate in the Filoli Gardens transitions a courtyard to a spacious view beyond. What to do when the object of desire is in full shade with bright streaming light all around it? I chose to make it look like an old photograph. I reduced the contrast, and dialed back the saturation to just a hint of color.
At Annie's Annuals and Perennials, not only is the nursery stuffed with incredible plants, the painted walls inside the fortress, are playful. I enjoyed the shadows cast on this wall, adding another dimension to the brightly painted scene.
The painted terra cotta pots lined up artistically in rows in the Ruth Bancroft Garden's greenhouse. I loved stumbling upon this scene. If it weren't for all the plants I winter over in the greenhouse, I would have pots like this all lined up on my benches.
Since this is part of a garden tour, it's imperative to show some plants. We reached the Nichols garden and found much shade in the long, narrow, side garden leading up to the backyard. As I went up the stairs, I noticed the spot of light on one of the steps. Although I was hoping for more shade all day, this spot of light caught my eye on the Centradenia floribunda blossom engulfed stairway.
Gardening for the Homebrewer: Grow and Process Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More
By co-authors Debbie Teashon (Rainy Side Gardeners) and Wendy Tweton
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