San Francisco Tea Garden

While taking a tour of San Francisco, I stopped at the lovely Tea Garden tucked into the Golden Gate Park.  The garden was gorgeous, with azaleas in bloom, winding trails, secret gardens, ponds with creative rock gardens, and the serenity that takes one away from the hustle and bustle of city life.  Hidden in a back pathway was a gorgeous statue of a Buddha.  I photographed the Buddha and made a new montage with lotus.  Notice that the bronze Buddha is sitting on an open lotus flower.

Chile and Argentina Montages

While traveling with Grand Circle Tours in Chile and Argentina this winter to escape the cold North and to enjoy the South American culture, I took over 1000 digital pictures.  Now it is time to do something with those images and I just finished creating some montages from them.  They include two from Valparaiso, which is a port city where 17 hills tower over the basin city.  They mentioned that it was their San Francisco. The highlight of the trip for me was the visit to the famous poet Pedro Neruda's home on the hill and to see how he was inspired by the incredible views of the city and harbor.

In Buenos Aires, we visited the cemetery that contained Iva Peron's mausoleum.  At night, we enjoyed dinner and the Tango, which was an incredible display of talent.

Let me know what you think of these montages.

Lotus abound!

Each morning is a thrill for photographing the lotus!  About 100 are in bloom right now, with buds still coming on.  The pods from the withered blooms are enlarging, with seeds beginning to show in their development.  Great season for these flowers!  I am enthralled by them.

Here are two images. One is a straight photographic image and the other is a montage produced through manipulation. I actually like them both. Your thoughts?

Water Lily Montage

This afternoon, the water lilies were looking very lovely in the soft sunlight.  I took several pictures of them with varying exposures and obtained a couple that I like.  With the help of Photoshop, I manipulated the images to produce this montage.  Tell me what you think of it.

May Montages

The first weekend for the Garden Conservancy was May 8th and opened in a garden near Trumansburg for those of us living in this area of Central New York. The garden contained many specimens of fragrant lilacs and a collection of tulips and small tree peonies scattered in gardens behind the farm home. I photographed the flowers and then manipulated them to produce several montages pictured here.

I also produced a montage from tulips growing in the Cornell Plantations Young Garden, which is a portion of the Botanical Garden that is devoted to how we use flowers in our own lives, such as for births, weddings, deaths, Mother's Day, etc. The garden changes throughout the season and is well worth a visit.

Corners Gallery Show-Spring Bouquet

The theme for the Corners Gallery in Ithaca this month is spring bouquets. All of the artwork on the walls reflects floral delights produced by several artists in watercolor, oil, and photography. This is one of the pieces I have at the gallery and is a montage of lotus flowers, pods, and leaves. The lotus grow in my pond and are presently very dormant.