Portland Japanese Gardens

Last weekend Ann and I had to make a trip up to Portland.  Of course, whenever we do, we try our best to get up early so we can swing by the Portland Japanese Garden during members hours for a bit of photography.  Spring is certainly in the air and not only was everything in bloom, the sun was up and out even before the gates opened!

We had no particular agenda this visit, or at list I didn’t.  And given that the sun was out, we didn’t get our hopes up because photographing in the sun is very difficult.  Still, it was early morning light and it had a pleasant quality to it, even if it was a bit stark after all the rain we’ve had lately.  It didn’t take me very long to focus on the play of light and shadows between a maple and a Douglas Fir.  

We decided to head on a different route than we usually follow, so wound up heading into the sun almost immediately.  It didn’t take me long to start thinking about making a back-lit image, though not wanting a total silhouette.  I found an area where larger trees blocked most of the light, with shafts of light that penetrated to illuminate the ground.  

While the black and white image loses the lovely color of the early season maples, in my mind this was intended as a black and white.  

We wandered around the gardens, not making a lot of images.  Ann and I have been busy as of late and it seemed that, for both of us, slowing down and just enjoying the beauty of the gardens was in order.  I set up and didn’t photograph several images after forcing one image and not being very happy with it.  Yes, just enjoying being there was the thing to do.  Hearing quacking, I walked over to the little stream that connects the upper and lower ponds and happily watched a duck with her dozen ducklings make their way down the riffles and rocks.  

Then one of the guides walked over and told us a wood duck had settled into the upper pond for the season - a first!  Ann stopped to make a couple of photographs and I walked up to the bridge overlooking the pond.  As I stood there enjoying the view, my eye turned to the water and finally I became excited about the image before me. 

Despite not being very clear and having quite a bit of muck on the surface, it was still mesmerizing to watch the reflections, then try to photograph it. 

After a bit of photographing reflections I heard quacking on the pond and, sure enough, there was the wood duck. What more to do other than tilt my camera upwards to make a photograph.  Well that and curse myself for leaving my long telephoto zoom at home!

As the wood duck made its way out of view I heard quacking behind me and there was the mother duck and ducklings making their way back up-stream.  So there I stood another short while watching them make it through and over the rapids and rocks and eventually to the upper pond.  As they swam under the bridge I crossed it, and noticed another image.  So I turned my thoughts to photography again.

Now this is an image that I wasn’t sure about in my mind.  I looked at it through my B&W viewing filter, and it looked appealing.  Then again, it also did in color too. 

I’m still not sure which is better.

Ann and I slowly made our way back up to the viewing building.  Earlier the building had cast shadows that cut across the foreground and while the shadow hadn’t gone away totally, we were able to at least frame some images that avoided those areas.  

The Portland Japanese Garden in Spring is really something!

We slowly looped our way around and down towards the bottom loop.  Ann set up for a couple of images, but my camera stayed put.  Crunching on a couple of deadlines had exhausted me mentally and physically, so simply relaxing was a treasure, and to get to do that in a place like this was wonderful.

Still, my curiosity often gets the best of me and as I enjoyed the sound of this water basin, my eyes became fixated on the pattern of the water as it flowed from the bamboo down to the pool.  So of course the camera eventually came out. 

It was a lovely morning at the Portland Japanese Gardens.  A photography session where I entered with no expectations and was smart enough to let myself relax and enjoy being there.  As it seems to always do when one can do that, the photographs just seem to appear.