We’re so lucky to have such creative and enthusiastic visitors! Do you create art at the Garden? We would love to see it! If you would like your Garden-themed art featured on Plant Talk, email an example of your work and a little bit about yourself to blog@nybg.org.
Today’s topic is the one thing that I think every New York City wildlife photographer should consider investing in. With this, not only will you have access to the grounds and great attractions the Garden offers year round, but you’ll also be able to enter the Garden before the public does. What is it? It’s an Annual Supporting Membership.
As a Supporting Member, not only will you get a neat membership card for yourself and one other person (which in turn, gets you into the Conservatory, Rock Garden, Everett Children‘s Adventure Garden, and more) both of you will get what I like to call “the golden ticket:” An early-morning grounds pass which grants you access to the Garden’s stunningly beautiful 250-acres before they open to the public at 10:00 a.m. With this pass, you can arrive as early as 6:00 a.m. and shoot till your heart’s content.
An annual supporting membership is $250. Yes, that might seem a bit steep, especially in today’s economy, but you can cut the cost in half if you join with another person. I convinced my best friend who is also an amateur photographer to join with me, which brings the cost down to $125 each. Although the membership is in my name, we both got individual membership cards and early morning grounds passes.
I look at it this way; the money is going to keep a place that I love operating. Just the opportunity to photograph hawks, owls, and other wildlife with only a few folks around 52-weeks a year is enough to get me to re-up every year. My last four close-up encounters happened before 7:30 a.m.!
You just show your pass to the security guard at either entrance and you’re in. During one of my more recent adventures, I came across two young great-horned owls and one of their parents in the native forest around 6:45 a.m. I was able to get some great shots and video.
If you just want to go solo and don’t care about the pass, then join as an individual at $75. You can check out all the different levels of membership here.
If you still need convincing, then go to my photo site and see for yourself. Look into the eyes of the owls, hawks and other wildlife and imagine yourself in the Native Forest, camera in hand, the smell of damp earth in the air and the sounds of the natural world around you. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Three of our intrepid visual specialists (aka photographer Ivo M. Vermeulen, photo editor Mark Pfeffer, and videographer Rustin Dwyer) spent last Friday morning at the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, taking turns going up in the bucket truck to snap some truly stunning photographs and video of this spectacular garden at peak bloom.
Here’s a shot Ivo took from the bucket of Mark, Rustin, and our new Web designer Eduardo Almonte.
A little perspective.
Mark in the bucket.
And the results? Gorgeous!
The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden (photo by Mark Pfeffer)
Summer, regardless of whether or not the calendar says so, is here. So let’s make “Picturing Summer at the Garden” the theme for this inaugural monthly NYBG-IGPOTY contest on Flickr!
But first, let’s set some ground rules:
1.Photos must be taken at The New York Botanical Garden, but needn’t be from this month, year, or even decade. Please make sure they adhere to the theme and that you own the copyright to them.
2. Please enter only one photo per calendar week. That means in June you can enter up to five (5) photos, but please submit them a week apart. The weeks of June are defined as: Week 1, 6/1 – 6/4; Week 2, 6/5 – 6/11; Week 3, 6/12 – 6/18; Week 4, 6/19 – 6/25; and Week 5, 6/26 – 6/30.
3. For your photograph to be considered, it must be placed into the NYBG Group Pool and be tagged with the term NYBGIGPOTY.
4. The NYBG Flickr Pool is moderated by NYBG staff. While we work a lot, we tend to not work in the evenings and on weekends, so if your photo does not immediately show up in the pool, that is why; it just hasn’t been approved yet. If several days go by, or if Monday afternoon comes around and your photo still hasn’t shown up in the pool, please let us know.
5. In the spirit of IGPOTY, please feel free to comment on each others photos (nicely, please) and to share tips, tricks, techniques, and stories.
6. One monthly winner and one or two runner’s up will be chosen by a panel of NYBG staff and friends of the Garden. We’re hoping to get commentary on the photos from IGPOTY’s staff as well!
7. The winner will receive a small prize from us, but we haven’t figured out what that will be yet. Stay tuned!
I met Joel Kroin while out on a walk last week. He was kneeling in the entrance to the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden with an old camp coffeepot. I hesitated for a moment, and almost walked past him, but my curiosity got the better of me. “Is that a pinhole camera?” I asked. Indeed it was. It turns out that Joel is not just a horticulturist and NYBG Member, he’s also an artist who has been making beautiful engravings at the Garden for years. Recently has begun experimenting with pinhole cameras. I ran into Joel again today, down by the waterfall on the Bronx River, and he promised me that he would have more beautiful shots to share soon. In the meantime, here is the pinhole photograph Joel was making when I met him, and an engraving of the same waterfall he was photographing today.
Entrance to the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden - Pinhole photography by Joel KroinBronx River Waterfall - Engraving by Joel Kroin
The weather was just fabulous yesterday, so I decided to take advantage of it and left my cubicle for a stroll through the Perennial Garden. It was packed with happy visitors sitting in the sun, snapping pictures, and strolling through the long-awaited sunshine. I had a great time chatting about flowers, our current exhibition, Spanish Paradise: Gardens of the Alhambra, and the Garden in general. Here are a few pictures I managed to snap in-between conversations.
Click to enlarge image (Photos by Joel Kroin)
