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## 2002

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## 2003\4

Articles

Rhododendrons colours:

index

white

orange

yellow

Rhododendron George's Delight - a nice flower with a mix of colours - yellow, pink and orange.

Rhododendron 'Double Winner' a strigilosum hybrid with hairy leaves and stems - has bright red flowers

Rhododendrons colours:

pink

red

blue

species

photo page thousands of photos               other topics        rhododendron photo review

Photography

My (ex)-gardens 'Park der Gärten' Germany ASA Convention 2003 Flowershow ARS Dutch Rhodo. Society
Kalmia latifolia "Indian Summer" in Maine wildflowers Costa Blanca Bernhard Knorr rhodo's Hans Hachmann Rhodo's Joe Klimavic azaleas
one of my latest crosses

Rhodoland
Photography

Dicentra

          In a website as this one photography plays an important role. It would not be complete without fine\beautiful photographs about rhododendrons and azaleas. And much more as you can see now and in the future with new albums!
 When I see a magazine about plants, I first look at the pictures, just to SEE, what it is all about. That's why I have this webpage about photography in my website.
          Last summer (2005) I participated in a photo-exhibition in Steenwijk, and got quite some positive responses about my photographs. Also about my special way to photograph plants with a dark background. 
It's my pleasure to invite you to take a good look at the albums and pictures below and I hope you will enjoy the beauty of the photographed "material".         

blue garden geranium

Sa Tuna at the Costa Brava in Spain

     For decades I have made photographs with the goal of "fixing" vacations and showing the natural beauty of plants and landscapes.  And naturally, as everyone, I tried to do this in a way that makes the photographs look beautiful.
    I once read in a magazine that photography is "fixing an image of reality".  That may sound good, but it is not the end of the discussion since one may ask: what is reality?   Strictly speaking, my goal is to make the pictures look like what my eyes see.  This is true for both film and digital photography.

   double flowering snowbells agains a blue sky

'Lake Moraine' in the Rocky Mountains in Canada

view from our garden on nice sunsets many times of the year

       Meanwhile I made far more than 10,000 slides, and I must clear off all those, which are not good enough. That is quite difficult, just as with my rhodo-crosses. All those years, I did not intend to make artistic photography. This is more than just taking pictures!! 
As soon as you have the technical aquipment and facilities of a good  SLR with the right lenses, you can just do more. Even  a simple angle-viewer on your camera offers you  more perspectives, literally you don't have to creep with your body flat on the ground.  And with connecting rings you can make macro pictures quite cheap. And  in combination with a strong wideangle lens, like 17-35 mm, you have even more possibillities.

a sort of 'silver thistle' just coming up in our garden passion-flower the so called  'Swans-neck'- poppy :-)

        Now,  technically speaking, I managed - I don't  give away how - to photograph plants and flowers with a very large depth of field and a dark background. As you can see at the pictures. You can think  of a very strong wide-angle lens and a fill-in-flash with a limited reach! This dark background "abstracts" so to speak the object. All what is around the flowers, is not important now. Oh, sure, pictures with a less large depth of field can result in fine pictures, but then quite different.                            
        My subjects are - as you see, and probably also expected - most  chosen out of nataure, and in particular out of my large garden. Sometimes in the morning, but most later in the afternoon or evening, I take my camera and walk through my garden. And many times I 'discover' something for a photo.Just opened buds of a chestnut tree, purple cones of a fir - the stretching stem of a Yukka or a fern unrolling its leaves - there is always something for a nice picture.

a scene with willow-cats and a sunset again wilow-cats - so photogenic as if the trees are in fire

        Sunsets have always been  the favorite scenery of many people, certainly with 'romantic souls'. And surely, using a wide-angle lens with something exciting in the foreground  Also here I use fill-in-flash with plantobjects in the foreground. And a touching sky in the background. This produces mostly  surrealistic images. But also plants against a blue sky, preferably with white clouds, can give impressive photos.
        As you can see below, my most photographed motivs are not only plants. Now and then I say:"If God made this world so wonderful, then we should use the possibillities to see it". In 1994 we made trip of about 4 week through the Canadian Rocky Mountains and to Vancouver Island. I took more than 1.000 slides, of which 300 pure of plants and gardens.
But also (rhododendron)-gardens in (south) -England, like the 'Leonardslee Gardens" are very worth visiting! And churches, medieval cities, castles etc.

Osor iin the inland of the  Costa Brava in the 'Van Dusen Park' near Vancouver in Canada view from the hotel on thet 'Lake Louise' in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

       In the last years I read a lot of photo-magazines, also German and English. Especcially in English magazines, like 'Practical Photography' and 'Photography  monthly'  you can find many practical tips how to improve your skills and photos. Photo-reviews and discussions show you what is wrong or could be better! But what I don't undrstand is, that in some magazines you  learned what is wrong in photos, you see happen later in so called portfolios of professional photographers. Appearently it is so, that if you are called a "Rembrand", you can 'fuzzle around', and then it is good. Of course, I overdo now, but you will understand what I mean.....
Anyway, what I will keep on  reading,  are the magazines "Focus", (Dutch), "Fotomagazin", (German), and "Photography 
monthly". 
Sometimes I see photo reportages, and I think..."oh boy, may be interesting as a report, but from the photographic point of view in my opinion not so good....." 
But, who am I....I am just a starter....(?).

interior of the barock church of in Amorbach, Germany I like organs and churches like this 'Dom' of Berlin Cathedral of Malaga in Spain, taken with wide angle lens for special perspective

        Photographically seen, we are living in an exciting time. Digital versus analog. Some people call making photos and slides according to the "old chemical process", the "honest way of photography".Just take a photo of what you get before your camera, and no further bungling. There is and was a lot of discussion in photo magazines about this 'dilemma'. Usually the answer is, that it does not matter in what way you get your image. I agree with that point of view.
But, what are you doing, AFTER you got your photo?!!
Then you can by any 'photo manipulation' for example, let horses walk over the water. In a magazine I saw horseshoes flying through the air. Is that beautiful? Or a new 'art of photography'?
Indeed, now you can digitally add a new dimension to photography. An artistic dimension, that did not exist before.I don't know if I will ever do this. We'll see - for the time being I will be an oldfashined photographer. And nothing more.......(?)

How to order:

Some pictures are  scanned slides. You can order prints in the following sizes:
10 x 15.2 inches;  16 x 24 inches; 20 x 28 inches and 24 x 32 inces.The prints will be much better, because what you see here are jpg images.
Information:  info@rhodoland.nl   

Albums

          This renewed page offers you the possibility to see albums. And it is my intention to extend the number of them as long as my website does not
grow 'out of hand'. Albums about Gardens in England, Germany etc. Albums with churches like in York etc.
Seing albums is easier then as it was, clicking on a thumbnail to see the normal image and then reloading the whole page again.

Now I have the following albums available:

album photography 1                album photography 2            album photography 3

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