Having way too much fun on my trip still, so the blog is getting a bit neglected. Tuesday and Wednesday of this week Jan and I drove down to the Philadelphia area to stay a couple nights with her sister and brother-in-law. The plan was to visit Winterthur and Longwood Gardens the 2 days we were down there.
According to the weather dudes those were supposed to be our best days for outdoor outings. Unfortunately the weather dudes screwed up. Tuesday morning driving down it was spitting rain at us most of the way. Jan’s sister suggested when we got there that we do Winterthur that day, since lots of it was indoors touring the house.
Winterthur was quite lovely. A beautiful big house full of collections surrounded by a wonderful park-like estate. When we arrived at the visitor’s center we rode in the “Garden Tram” to the house and had a informative short tour of the garden with a very nice guide.
Jan loves Azaleas and our timing for this visit was perfect as they were at their peak. It did continue to rain, mostly it was only spitting and a bit gray. We still enjoyed walking around the gardens near the house and touring the collections in the house.
Most of the good photographs I got that day were close-ups because the lighting really didn’t lend itself to distant outdoor shots.
One tool I was using a lot in my photography this trip was the “guidelines” on my smart phone’s camera view. Most smart phones have this option on them and I’ve found it really handy for helping me line up and compose my shots. My phone is the Samsung Note 2. I found the “guidelines” under the “settings” in the camera view.
The next day dawned a bit gray still, but we headed out to Longwood Gardens. These gardens are incredible and even with the overcast weather that never quite left us, it was an amazing day. I managed to take over 200 photos there, of course some of that was because I take multiple shots with slight differences hoping to get a shot I like.
Despite most of my visit this week being marked by wet weather I’ve really enjoyed it. It is such a change to be somewhere so lush and green, compared to my mountain top. The tall deciduous trees and rampant green undergrowth is quite different from the evergreen forest that surrounds my home on the mountain.
I’ll share more of my Longwood Garden photos next week. I also hope to have a fun new animation video finished for you by then.
Mamas2Hands 