Sunday, March 4, 2012

Pinhole Botanical Gardens

Last weekend I took the pinhole camera out to the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum, where I've taken pictures before, but for some reason I didn't take the film out of the camera when I was done, so I didn't develop them until this weekend when I remembered.

The week of detachment gave me enough time to forget what I'd actually taken pictures of, so when I pulled this picture out I had no idea what it was:

pinhole greenhouse (3)

I frowned at it for a minute or two.

The hell? Did I stick the camera inside one of those monoliths from "2001"? What's at the garden that looks anything like this?

But when I started turning it over it suddenly clicked:

pinhole greenhouse (1)

It's one of the former potting sheds, which has a translucent roof. They have a couple of buildings like that, and the roof of the other one really glows in this picture:

pinhole greenhouse (2)

That soft glowing lighting? I want every photo of me from now until forever to look like this, because I bet it's flattering as hell.

The rest of the grounds look great, too:

gate and stairs

round building

road, gatehouse

although I'm disappointed in the way the gatehouse looks in this picture:

gatehouse

The gatehouse, to me, always looks a little bit like a storybook house:

gatehouse exterior

but I wasn't able to catch that with the pinhole, and will need to try again. I also shot from the interior:

gatehouse interior

like I've done before:

gatehouse interior

for some comparison, and then wrapped up with some broken statues of deer:

deer statues

and a view of the countryside:

pinhole landscape

I also decided to take the pinhole camera back there in a few weeks, when the trees are in bloom for spring. When I use my camera on them, I end up with pictures of petals all around them:

pink flowering tree (2)

but the pinhole's longer exposure should get some petals actually falling. I can see in my head the way that it should look, with long streaks across the picture like falling snowflakes.

If I can take the picture right without overexposing it.

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