Fill The Frame

It has been a while since I submitted an entry to Gardening Gone Wild's Picture This photo contest. You get busy and wander off. Then a good deal of time can pass before you wander back. I wandered back at the right time for the photo contest and am in the mood to procrastinate from other more pressing things.

The theme for this month, Fill the Frame, is a study in composition. It made for a good mind exercise while I was digging out unwanted forsythia and philadelphus in the ridge top garden and gave me a photo task in my comings and goings during the day.

I took all kinds of pictures with Fill the Frame in mind. Then I had to pick just one for the contest from the already narrowed down contenders. Not easy. These were all the possibilities.

This picture while nice was too easy.

The Sheffie Mum



Was the purpose of the task to fill the frame completely with a single theme or is the composition of different objects in a unifying theme more important?

Stacked Stones



Pictures of the Lush never seem to win. This one makes me want to climb over the fence and see what else is out there.

Out Riding Fences - Desperado




Waiting and Turning




Going To the Chapel




Still Life In The Zinnias




This was a very strong contender.

Anemone Creek




Captured By Fall



Our judge this month Saxon Holt says "Lesson #1 in all my workshops is to analyze what you are seeing and make the camera say what you want it to say. Fill the frame with your message. Don’t waste space in the photo with information that does not tell your story."

The light was just perfect yesterday and this Birch tree glowed inside the darker forest. I couldn't walk by without it calling out to me. I wanted to capture that glow.



So I zoomed in, eliminating all distractions and filled the frame with glowing birch.

This is my entry for October's Picture This photo contest exactly how it came out of the camera, no cropping and no enhancing.

Glowing Birch



Now I must attend to more pressing matters. I have rhododendrons and daffodils to plant and more things to paint.

The Intent Of The Gardeners

Gardening Gone Wild's Picture This Photo Contest this month is an attempt to capture the intent of the gardener in a photograph that shows how "Successful gardens tend to have some unifying principle, whether it be color, structure, formality, plant selection or something else."

Ok I can try to do that. In the case of this particular garden scene and my photo entry, the hands of many gardeners with a large helping hand from mother nature have been at work for many years. It is only in the last three that I have exerted enough influence to make the passersby contemplate that yes, this is most likely intended.

You can just call the theme "More". It is the riot of more.



The above photo is shrunk to a smaller size per contest rules. The same image below is larger and can be clicked on to open to full size for more detailed enjoyment.



The intent of the builder was to have a floor that a filthy active gardener would not destroy in a couple of years and that would not need to be cleaned every afternoon. The kitchen is done.



And I will be heading into the bathroom upon my return from Garden Bloggers Buffa10.



The gardener will keep plugging away as the years go by to add to the riot of more. The plant species diversity on this mountaintop will keep increasing. A bio-reservoir of plants, animals and insects, just in case.



The gardener intended this too. Driving around these parts before noon, only a keen botanically minded eye might figure it out. Perhaps if I cut the grass outside the fence it would help.



Now the gardener and the builder intends to take a little break. I'm going to see Niagra Falls.

Other Things

The warm is kicking everything into high gear. Now I think we are ahead of schedule. I sure hope we are not being set up for a repeat of the great Easter Freeze of '07'. Cool is coming in a few days. Maybe it will slow things down for a bit.

The maples are blooming and one of the most ethereal sights of the forest is the first blush of spring when a light fog of red, yellow, orange and green hovers on the tips of the trees. The hushed spring hillsides hint of a riotous fall on the other side of summer.



I accidentally bought a couple more Yucca filamentosa 'Bright Edge' last week while pricing plants for a landscape job. I am not familiar with the pricing of plants here and had a legitimate reason to be in a nursery. They should look very nice with the yellow and purple Lorelei iris that Bulbarella keeps digging up and giving away and that keep coming back no matter how hard she tries to get rid of them. The two smaller Yuccas I planted last fall are not looking to happy. The place I put them in may be too shady and wet. They need to be moved.



In the midst of all this spring garden cleaning I have been cleaning the wood elements in the cabin to get them prepped for staining. I have the vinegar to clean the loft floor one more time. I have also been looking at tile and have it narrowed down to three choices.

I was thinking I should match the stain to the tile and wanted to pick a tile to be able to choose the stain. Our design consultant said no, we should match the stain to the lightest tone in the cabinets. That does seem to make more sense. Now I can also check the tile against the cabinets for the all important flow.



Even more important and the ground zero starting point for the choice of tile is checking the tile against my dirt for that all important flow. I am so in the zone.



At some point I should no longer have any exposed dirt. It will be covered with plants and leaves and sticks no doubt.



But I dig in the dirt. Dirt is somehow unavoidable no matter how hard you try to keep it where it belongs.



The green world is coming. Soon browns, greys and the golden orange of my dirt will fade into the background. The new green foliage of Eremurus is my entry for Gardening Gone Wild's photo contest this month.



Right now yellow is announcing the upcoming change to green.

Winter Light

There has been ample winter this year and all the variations of light that come with the various weathers forging their way through the high Carolinas. Gardening Gone Wild's Picture This photo contest for the month of February is called Winter Light. This month's judge is Roger Foley of Foley Foto who chose the topic. Winter Light, no problem, I got that.

I have certainly taken enough pictures of the numerous iterations of winter. What is a person to do when they are stuck in Siberia? So it was difficult to choose just one picture to submit for the contest.

I have gotten a sad amount of pleasure on those few days when the sun decided to make an appearance and shined brightly on a world encased in winter's grip. The strong shadow lines it created on the near daily freshly fallen snow were an entertainment in a more often monochromatic existence. I choose the light and shadow picture below for my entry because I enjoyed playing with these images so much.

A Shadow Of Its Former Self



There were a lot of other possible choices as well. More often than not, winter light is a suffused light dispersed through layers of chilled forms of moisture. I think the judge was more after actual light than a mere notion of it. When the fog, snow and rime sit directly on the land a haunting beauty exists, but is it light?



The walking sticks left no doubt that actual sunlight was involved in the dance.



It was fun looking for interesting patterns as I trudged to and fro.



The garden large in winter is certainly an acceptable subject for a garden blog photo contest. A certain mystery pulls you in despite the cold and the likely hood that the coyote tracks I was following could lead to a real coyote.



Waking up to sunshine after the storm. This is light, but the scene is too big to be garden.



The setting winter sun lights the mountains from a different angle and often uses a more pastel palette of colors.



I love this image and was very tempted to choose it as my entry even knowing that it may not be the kind of light being looked for. For me and this winter, it totally encapsulates the dominant light form of winter high up in the clouds.



The glorious beaming sun in the middle of the day with not a cloud in the sky glitters through the freshly frozen tree tops. I take a picture of this scene often enough in all seasons. It has good bone structure.



These are the many moods of winter light.

Just One More

Walking The Line

The Sun Came Out

This is my entry for Gardening Gone Wild's January Picture This photo contest.

And The Winner Is

The entry for Gardening Gone Wild's November photo contest is



Into The Wilderness - Back Home

Thank you so much to everyone who voted. The final tally was:
Into The Wilderness - 10
The Edge Of Winter - 7 and
No crossing - 3.
As best as I could tell with some votes just as indecisive as I was.

The funny thing is the chosen winner was only added to the choices at the last minute. It was good, but not the most striking image to me.

I'd have to go back and count but I think The Edge Of Winter would have won as everyone's favorite photo. I need to win me an Amaryllis though so many of you voted for the most likely to win, not necessarily your favorite. That is so good of you.

Thanks again for the help in picking an entry. There is some strong competition and you never know what will strike the judges interest. It is fun trying, more so with a little help.

You would not believe how long it took to make this post with the heinous Hughes satellite internet punishing me with mega slow speed that drops the connection half the time. I keep mentioning this so it will come up in searches when people are looking at this service. Bad publicity. Take that Hughes, you lousy ISP that charges the same price as reliable high speed internet.

You Decide

Updated 11-21 4:48pm

The entry for Gardening Gone Wild's photo contest is the second picture "Into The Wilderness - Back Home." Thankyou so much to everyone who cast a vote, even the wishy washy ones where I had to decipher the intent.

I can't make up my mind. The theme for Gardening Gone Wild's Picture This Photo Contest this month is "The End Of The Line." For the last two weeks that line has been running through my head. To put an end to my indecision I am leaving it up to you dear readers to cast a vote for the photo most likely to win me a magnificent Amaryllis Charasima in a Talavera pot from David Salman at High Country Gardens.

Leave a comment to cast your vote. The day before the deadline of 11:59 pm Eastern time on Sunday, November 22nd the single photo entry allowed for the contest will be identified to the judge this month, Joshua McCullough, the creator of the botanical PhytoPhoto.



The Edge Of Winter





Into The Wilderness - Back Home





No Crossing





The Last Stop of Chicago Spring Fling - Garfield Park Conservatory on the Green Line


.....