Quilt Garden

Excellent arrangement, beautifully photographed. If your idea was to document the scene its fine but if you intend to make this more graphical I see an opportunity to crop much of the top and leave only the plants and the gravel laden pathways. That looks much more artistic to me, Barbara

Bargara, thanks for sharing...always a delight to see the creativity of others expressed in the garden! Ken S

Barbara,

I'm really pleased you decided to post this. Beautiful work, both the garden and the image. I do agree with Ram that there's a stronger graphic image if you crop down to the top of the garden itself. Also, I know it would be a nuisance to do but I might clone out the shadows on the white flagstones, they're a little distracting. As posted though, this is a very appealing image.

Pat

Would be really nice to see Barbara. Thanks for posting. Agree with others....and wouldn't be nice to be in a cherry picker and be able to take a shot looking striaght down on the "quilt"

The others have a good suggestion regarding showing the quilt part of the garden only, but of course that would be a different picture. This picture is quite nice showing the wall and benches on the far side of the quilt. It gives the viewer a good overall sense of this beautiful garden.

Your photo does exactly what you wanted to do which is show off the garden. I like all the composition elements: lines, colors, shapes and textures. I would also like to see the cropped version without the top as I think that would also be an interesting garden photo. No one photo can do it all. One of the garden photography books I read talked about taking three types of photos when shooting gardens: big overviews, smaller areas and close-ups. When I remember (which I rarely do when I start reacting to whatever I am seeing in the garden) I think its a good strategy.

Sandy
Berkeley, CA
Natural History Wanderings
http://picasaweb.google.com/sandysteinman

This is a repost of my original image.

Hi everyone. Thanks so much for viewing this image and your comments. Here is the image cropped. I think the cropped image takes on a different life; I prefer the full image. I agree that the white stones are a bit distracting so that is something I can work on next.

Sandy, I love your comment about taking three different images of the same garden; big, small and close-up. I will keep those ideas and think about that the next time I'm out there shooting. And Bob, yes, it would be great to be a cherry picker and to see this garden from higher up. The landing they have built is as high as I can get, but it still works.

So, what do you think about the cropped image? Thanks everyone.

Love the aerial view of this checker-board setting Barbara. A well balanced image.

Thanks for sharing, Barbara...it`s very interesting to see what ideas the gardeners all over the world have...

Brigitte

Thanks for sharing this! What a wonder this would be to stroll around in. I like your use of the high spot to get your pov to show this off so well.

Thanks so much for your continued comments. Yes, Morris, this is a lovely garden to stroll around. I volunteer at this Arboretum so I get to see all these lovely flowers at least once each week, if not twice. And "Hi" to Brigitte. Yes, it is great to see all of these glorious images from photographers all over the world. I think we all have the same ideas in our head and that is to capture nature at its finest. I will continue my quest to do just that ... watch for more posts. Thanks again to everyone who shared their comments and critiques.

beautiful garden with nice and very interesting arrangement. Well seen & captured Barbara.

Hi Barbara When all is said. and done.... I agree with you about the first version being better!! Thanks for sharing this beautiful garden with us
Albert Darmo. Canada

Hi Albert and everyone else,

I agree, I really prefer the original image since it shows all the other beautiful pieces of this garden. I plan to document this garden over the next couple of months and watch the plants grow and come together to form this quilt pattern. It should be lovely. Thanks again for all the comments and critiques.

Wow, amazing garden. Thanks for sharing.
May