WASHINGTON ARBORETUM
What a beautiful day yesterday was! Finally we had a stop to the rain and the sun even came out for a few hours. A perfect opportunity to take our son out for a walk and for me to snap some photos. We packed up in the car and headed out to the Washington Arboretum, a beautiful park about thirty minutes away from our house. Upon arriving I was greeted with amazing fall colors, ones that I have been wanting to capture for years.
This first photo is my favorite from the day as it just worked out exactly like I wanted it to. From the colors, to the framing, the lighting, everything fell in to place just as I had envisioned. It’s kind of funny because in some of these photos it looks like the wooden deck is surrounded by grass but it is actually a pond covered in plants, algae and other growth. Just a beautiful place to be, resulting in a fantastic photo (I printed this one out and it was even better in hard copy).
This photo comes in at a very close second to the one above as I really love how it turned out. The Arboretum was full of little amazing little trails, stairs and other hidden gems to shoot. Shoutout to my wife for being my scout and noticing a few locations such as this one that I didn’t see. This photo is 100% Seattle, yet it reminds me of Maui so much!
A variation of the first photo, I was absolutely in love with this part of the park! Beautiful fall colors, the pond, the decking, what’s not to love? I have a special liking to Japanese gardens and gardens that pull from that look and feel as this one does with the pond and deck. The Washington Arboretum has a complete Japanese Garden section but unfortunately it was nap time for my son before we were able to get to it, so I will have to save that adventure for a different day (I have a feeling some great photos will result from that trip).
I swear my son is getting better and better at posing for photos and is starting to understand not only the concept behind having your picture taken or taking a picture but is also getting better at facing the right way, smiling, and most importantly staying still. In this photo he did a great job of looking at the camera and smiling resulting in a great picture of him. It was by complete accident but it’s funny how his top (green jacket) matches the natures top (green trees) and his bottom (tan/yellow pants) matches the foliage on the ground which is also yellow/tan, and lets not forget the his shirt and shoes working well with the rocks…sometimes you just get lucky.
This photo is the exterior view of the pond as you approach it to enter the deck section. I have mentioned this previously in multiple blogs, the key to photography at times is to look behind you, or to get a different vantage point from the one that you are looking at. That was exactly the case here and it resulted in another good one from the day.
This photo is an example of a photo that just wasn’t working for me at first while trying to edit it. Sometimes when that happens it is best to just walk away and try again later. I did that, and the result ended up being a photo that I am quite happy with.
As you guys know by now I am obsessed with leading lines, as soon as I saw this bridge I knew I had to spend a few minutes taking photos of it.
I very rarely take selfies, while messing with the wide end of my 12-24 lens I looked down for a second and saw my feet. For some reason this struck me as something that looked kind of cool and I decided to take a “selfie”.
Like I mentioned earlier the pond looks like a lawn or a turf field covered in leaves, what a wild look. This photo again is another example of looking at the same thing from a different vantage point and getting a different photo. Remember, moving your feet is important.
This photo isn’t perfect or even good for that matter as I completely underexposed the trees and lost some critical data not allowing me to show the details in the tree trunks and branches, but with a little bit of editing and playing around I still like how it turned out. Sometimes the photo wont be perfect but it is still worth playing with it to see what you can get out of it.
I wrapped the day up with this photo of a bright yellow tree sitting smack dab in the middle of the park. Overall we had a fantastic day at the Washington Arboretum and I finally got a chance to do a photo shoot around fall colors like I had been wanting to do for a while now. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a chance to go in to the Japanese Garden but dad life comes first! Plus there is always next time (though between my daughter being born in two days and the weather turning for the worst who knows when next time will be). Till next time…
