Dgrin/SM bunch does the Chicago Botanic Garden

David_S85 · July 7, 2008

This past Sunday, a few of us Dgrinners from the Midwest and Central area gathered at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Illinois.

Cat (Shima) and her husband Joel, Cat's photographer friend Cindy, stuffjunkie (Kevin), David_S85 (me) and Diana arived when the sun was high, and sought the better light as it was getting lower throughout the afternoon.

Small bugs and flowers were abundant, but we were without the expert macro shooter this day; our buddy Gluwater (Nick) had planned to join us, but just couldn't make the afternoon shoot due to some new job committment. :dunno Next time get that boss of your's to give you the entire day off to go shooting, eh? :deal

We began our tour with the water lilies in the Circle Garden...

Dragon's were also abundant. We shot these guys for maybe a half an hour...

(this was a real test of my new Kenko extension tube set for use with my 400 5.6. Dragonflies, I own you now! Bwahahahahaha! I was stunned the 40D autofocued so quickly through the 36mm tube. Shot full frame from 6 feet away)

There are no shots of the ice cream that I know of, but that was next and a requirement for some of us. The Waterfall Garden followed...

Our small group was among several thousand other small groups populating the gardens, so getting serene shots like this next one, sans people, took a lot of waiting...

The two Japanese Garden Islands are among the most popular destinations within the park. The majority of our shooting time was spent there.
The bridge over to that spot. Cat is at left...

Cat and Cindy shooting not the same subject...

Members of our group wandering off spontaneously, while not encouraged, was also understood and later accepted. Diana was located resting by a lake. OK, she was actually strategically posed there by some photographers, but she did enjoy the view and water...

Zen garden steps...

The sound of flowing water soothes the restless spirit. Here it was barely trickling...

Manipulated pines appeared as large bonsai trees and played an important role amid the Japanese gardens...

We spent a short time within the English Walled Gardens. It was getting late so we didn't get all what we had hoped for, but almost anywhere you looked, there was something interesting.

Much of the flowering plants' glory had passed months ago. Luckily, like the Energizer Bunny, many of them keep giving and giving through the seasons. They were there, so we had to shoot them. Many were familiar...

Others weren't...

Hunger set in for everyone. Luckily, there's a restaurant on the grounds. I was too busy eating to play with cameras. Cat has a good shot of us I trust she'll post in here later.

No shootout would be complete without a pano. This overly-quick set was almost ruined when the photographer forgot to bracket and then overexposed by two full stops. An hour later he chimped the set noticing a mostly over-blown blinking mess in all 8 frames. It has been said countless times and is still true - RAW is your friend. A view of part of the Japanese Islands...

The enormous CBG grounds (385 acres) was too much to take in all in one shoot. We agreed a second visit in the near future is necessary to hunt more good light.

gluwater · July 7, 2008

Great set of photos David! I really wish I could have joined you and the others. I'll have to make sure I can join you for the next visit. I still haven't been to the Botanical Gardens and now I have even more reason to visit after seeing your great photos of it. Give Diana my best and hopefully next time I'll see you guys there.

Awais Yaqub · July 7, 2008

These are beautiful lovely colors loved the 1st a lot

Andy · July 7, 2008

David_S85 wrote:

Next time get that boss of your's to give you the entire day off to go shooting, eh?

It was Nick's first day, too. Heh.

Karrie McD · July 7, 2008

Wow!
What a fun playground for you all. I love the last flower photo. It is beautiful.

Shima · July 7, 2008

Andy wrote:

It was Nick's first day, too. Heh.

Yeah, we know, we were actually gonna give him a hard time and email in asking for help of some sort, but then we got too distracted shooting, lol. (I'm rather jealous of that excuse for missing our shoot, I think we all decided it was the best excuse ever... miss a dgrin shoot out to go work for smugmug? yeah can't beat that, heh)

I'll be adding some photos to the mix later after my wedding photos from Saturday finish uploading.

Great set of shots David!

(and yes, I do have a fun photo of the three of us from dinner to add to here later, hehehe)...and actually Andy, I believe said fun photo was taken with your former 10-22mm lens that David has now!

Shima · July 7, 2008

gluwater wrote:

Great set of photos David! I really wish I could have joined you and the others. I'll have to make sure I can join you for the next visit. I still haven't been to the Botanical Gardens and now I have even more reason to visit after seeing your great photos of it. Give Diana my best and hopefully next time I'll see you guys there.

Congrats on the new job, though you should know there will likely be more than just one additional visit in the future... the grounds are sooooooooo huge. I feel like we touched 1/10th, just the tip of the iceberg. You'll love it when we get to go again!

gluwater · July 8, 2008

Shima wrote:

Congrats on the new job, though you should know there will likely be more than just one additional visit in the future... the grounds are sooooooooo huge. I feel like we touched 1/10th, just the tip of the iceberg. You'll love it when we get to go again!

Thanks Cat! I'll be there next time, just let me know when.

Shima · July 9, 2008

My photos are uploading presently, but in the meanwhile to keep you entertained:

Stuffjunkie:

David_S85:

I have a way better photo of David that will be coming up later which works really well for a smugmug advertisement... but it hasn't uploaded yet, so when it does I'll post that.

Here's a lotus teaser while I wait for my photos to upload:

schmoo · July 9, 2008

Looks like it was a great time! And Cat, love that lotus blossom. I don't think I've seen one with color that like that before

Shima · July 9, 2008

schmoo wrote:

Looks like it was a great time! And Cat, love that lotus blossom. I don't think I've seen one with color that like that before

Thanks! Yeah that color was to die for, so I figured it was a good teaser to the rest of my shots

They had soooo many differently colored lotus blossoms there. Congrats on your new job btw!

ian408 · July 9, 2008

:jawdrop

Shima · July 9, 2008

Alright! They finished uploading:

First from the end of our day, the long awaited group photo:

This is how David was stooping when he took the photo that had my husbands hand and his lens in it:

I love the background blur in this

This photo below might very well be one of my favorites from the shoot:

With this as a close second:

Not only did we see dragonflies by the lotus flowers:

But did we mention it was mating season?

I was quite happy that we got to see the Japanese gardens:

I also like this shot

And now one more flower photo:

And here's the "advertisement" like photo of David

Sorry for so many! I loved a lot of them and it was hard to narrow ;_;
Here's the gallery: http://photos.cathoffman.com/gallery/5367966_XJKik

David_S85 · July 10, 2008

Cat, nice set of shots you put up. I especially like that one through the willows.

I knew I shoulda brought that set of red Smugmug hats with me!

Shima wrote:

And here's the "advertisement" like photo of David

Dgrin/SM bunch does the Chicago Botanic Garden

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