Huntington Gardens

anonymouscuban · January 20, 2009

My wife and I both had today off. We had nothing to do so spur of the moment, we decided to head down to the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena. We got there right at noon so lighting was rather harsh. Did my best to grab some shots.

Statue outside of Library. I believe this is Triton. When we purchased our current home, we had a statue of this guy by our pool. Wierd because it's a Spanish style home. He still around, somewhere down on our slope.

Another statue, this one a bronze female archer

The newly built Chinese Garden. Huge koi fish in the large ponds and several walking brigdes make this a beautiful garden. This garden looks like it would be very nice to shut right at sunset. The sun was almost directly over head so I tried my best to fix this image in post. Thank god for LR 2's graduated filter tool.

A few flowers and orchids from some of the many gardens

We headed over to Old Town Pasadena for an early dinner and then stopped by City Hall

poker · January 20, 2009

Nice pics. Thanks for sharing. I haven't been there in close to 16 years. That was the first place I was taken to just to simply take pictures all day. Nice to see it's still a great place for photos.

grimace · January 20, 2009

Beautiful looking captures!! I really like the last shot of city hall.

Ed911 · January 20, 2009

I liking the Archer, Chinese Gardens image, and especially the City Hall shot. You really did well with the harsh light.

I see you have a D300...did have your active D Lighting set to high? Just wondering.

Tango · January 20, 2009

enjoyed the little tour...thanks

anonymouscuban · January 20, 2009

poker wrote:

Nice pics. Thanks for sharing. I haven't been there in close to 16 years. That was the first place I was taken to just to simply take pictures all day. Nice to see it's still a great place for photos.

We used to have a membership but we didn't renew it this year. It really is a nice place, although this time of year is not the best time because almost everything is out of bloom. I plan to go back but later in the day to reshoot the Chinese garden.

anonymouscuban · January 20, 2009

Ed911 wrote:

I liking the Archer, Chinese Gardens image, and especially the City Hall shot. You really did well with the harsh light.

I see you have a D300...did have your active D Lighting set to high? Just wondering.

Actually, I have Active D turned off. I shoot in RAW so I can deal with it in post. Although, when I first got my D300, I did take some test shots with the Active D on and I have to say, it works pretty well.

Tango · January 20, 2009

RAW is nice.

anonymouscuban · January 20, 2009

AaronNelson wrote:

RAW is nice.

Yes it is. It's one of those things that I wanted to slap myself for not doing earlier. I mean aside from storage, which is pretty cheap nowadays, I don't see any reason NOT to shoot in raw.

It's funny because my wife complained a little when I set her camera to raw because she could store as many pics on her card. Her opinion changed very quickly when I showed her how to fix the exposure on a very under exposed image she took at a going away party. She was amazed how easily she was able to salvage a picture she was ready to delete.

Tango · January 20, 2009

not to get into a RAW discussion.... but you are on the right track.
even when you have full control of what you want out of the camera, why limit your post options?

that would be like having a home with only one door and no windows....

or driving a car with tunnel vision

Qarik · January 21, 2009

lovely set. I especially liked the building/statue shots

cj99si · January 21, 2009

loved them all, great exposures.

eL eSs Vee · January 22, 2009

Nice set.

If I'm not mistaken, the statue in your first image is Poseidon, Greek Mythology's god of the sea.

That's a great shot of the Pasadena city hall, too. I've been meaning to photograph it for a long time, but haven't since the late '80s.

Great work.

anonymouscuban · January 22, 2009

eL eSs Vee wrote:

Nice set.

If I'm not mistaken, the statue in your first image is Poseidon, Greek Mythology's god of the sea.

That's a great shot of the Pasadena city hall, too. I've been meaning to photograph it for a long time, but haven't since the late '80s.

Great work.

You're probably right. I wasn't 100% on which Greek God it was.

You need to check out the City Hall building. I hadn't seen it in at least 6 or 7 years. They must have done some extensive work to it because I do not remember it being so nice. That shot is from the inside court yard. It is very nice... actually a place you'd want to go to sit and read a book.

There is a nice vantage point from the street behind the building too but I didn't have time to shoot from there. I want to revisit the shot though.

Huntington Gardens

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