Haunted Woods – a Bucket List Shot
Gibbs Gardens in Ball Ground, Georgia, is one of my favorite places to commune with Mother Nature. It is the private residence of the owner of a well-known landscape company in the Atlanta area. The Gibbs family opens its property to the public for eight months out of the year. The Gardens are best known for the incredible display of daffodils every spring.
Every time I drove through the welcoming entrance of the Gardens, I would tell myself, “next time I will get a picture of this,” but there were always cars behind me and nowhere to really pull off. Last November, on a very cold and brisk morning, I set off to the Gardens by myself. There was no one behind me at the entrance and I stopped my car and captured a very unique perspective of the Gardens. This image will always be one of my favorites.
Monet Bridge in fall
On the same day, I had the Gardens almost entirely to myself. I didn’t feel rushed or pressured and I took my time, evaluating the lighting and studying my composition and framing.
Japanese Garden in fall
Taking a picture and creating an image are very different concepts. The magnificent colors of the Japanese garden and the reflections on the pond create luxurious textures that are reminiscent of a painting.
Green Dream
Landscape is not just what you see in the distance. It can be right in front of you. We got caught in a rainstorm and took shelter under the roof of the pool house at the Manor house. My friends set up their tripods and photographed the rain using slow shutter speeds. I, however, looked around for something that no one else had seen yet. Then, right next to my chair were beautiful vines and ivy growing on the wall. I couldn’t resist the he textures and many shades of green.
Beckoning Tide
Traveling from Asheville, North Carolina, back to Atlanta, my favorite route took me through the Nantahala Forest. One day, I drove through a rather nasty rainstorm that had mostly subsided by the time I reached the river. I had never seen the waves of the Nantahala River so big! I pulled over and grabbed my camera. I didn’t have my tripod with me, but my hands were steady enough to capture the silky texture of the stormy waters.
My settings for this image were: ISO 100 | f/20 | 1/10 s.
I kept the ISO low because I wanted to capture the moodiness of the storm. I closed my aperture to ensure that the entire image was in focus. The silky water effect can be created by using a slow shutter speed. It is usually not a good idea to shoot that slowly (no slower than 1/60s. typically) without a tripod, but as I said, I was traveling and didn’t have a tripod with me. I got lucky!
Octopus Water Lily
The biggest attraction of Gibbs Gardens for me is the water lily. I can (and have) spent HOURS in one area, photographing one lily from every possible angle. By spot-metering on the bloom, the depth of color of the water and the lily pads provides the perfect backdrop for the flower, making it appear illuminated.
Red Skies at Night
Landscape photography is so often about timing and being in the right place at the perfect time. One night last summer, a particularly ferocious storm blew through right at sunset. As soon as the rain let up, my dog told me it was time to “go.” As we finished up, my neighbor was walking by and told me to go inside, get my camera and go across the street to the reservoir. To this day, I get goose bumps looking at this image.
Sherry has had a lifelong love affair with photography, but did not get serious about it until 2012 when she started photographing shelter and rescue dogs because she felt that the pictures of shelter animals were often sad and depressing, and not attractive to potential adopters.
Since then, she has devoted many hours to photographing dogs and cats that are living in foster homes or that are being cared for by rescue organizations. Several dogs that she has photographed have been adopted solely because of images posted on pet adoption websites that were taken by her.
Sherry has expanded her portfolio to capturing special moments, including engagements and weddings, maternity and family, and senior portraits, but her greatest passion is, and always will be, landscape photography and the marvel that is Mother Nature.
Sherry lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with her rescued pit bull, Bart, and her tortico, Mabel. In her “spare time,” Sherry is a paralegal for an Atlanta law firm.
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