Garfield Park 2019 summer floral display

While in Indianapolis over the Labor Day holiday, I made a point to swing by the Garfield Park Sunken Garden to photograph the annual summer floral display, which I've endeavored to document in pictures most years since 2004, the year I obtained my first digital digital single-lens reflect camera (an original digital Canon Rebel, a/k/a the 300D)

It was nice to see the park and gardens again; the latter remain nattily maintained.  Fate can be a strange force in life, and after a recent experience, I can include one's photography pursuits in that grouping.

I'll admit ... that doing these shoots so many times over the years, it becomes a challenge to find something new and/or creative. I try. Not sure I succeed all the time, but maybe you'll see a few different things in this year's collection.

I lead off the post with my favorite shot of the shoot ... a closeup of a display in one of the large planter vases positioned on the plaza overlook. I was particularly fond of the array of violet colors in the arrangements. A perspective shot of the planter can be seen in the first photo below.

As always, to view a larger, sharper version of a photo, simply click on the image. This is particularly helpful when accessing the blog from a mobile device. To view a full gallery of the Sunken Garden shoot in Garfield Park, click on the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: I did the entire shoot with my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens equipped with a B+W polarizing filter. I took three slightly different exposures (one as metered, one 2/3 stop over and one 2/3 stop under metered), which I blended into a single frame in post-processing using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software. Most of the shots were taken at 100 close to 100 ISO and f/8. I used the shutter as my variable for the differing exposures for each composition.

I have grabbed the shot above of the labeled doors to the gardens previously, but usually from the south side of the overlook plaza. This view of the north doors was taken looking to the southwest, where the sun was beginning to lower. It's not of optimum quality, but using HDR helped salvage a usable version, I feel. In the two photos below, I present closeup and perspective shots of a display of Medusa ornamental peppers, something I had not see at the Sunken Garden before. 

Displays from the main lower level (above) and overlook plaza (below). 

Above: A visitor at work on a bench in the plaza overlook. 

Above and below: Slightly different angles of the conservatory and a fountain juxtaposed with the floral arrangements. I think I got some from the other side of the garden, which can be found in the SmugMug gallery. 

In pursuit of something different, I grabbed the above multi-directional-turn bed in the lower level. Below is a closeup of an arrangement of Zinia Hybridias from a display on the upper level overlook plaza. 

Above and below are two "different" looks from the garden. I've never tried the radical angle above, using the planter as my starter point to look, on a leftward angle, toward the fountains and conservatory. The shot of the planters below turned out to be a challenge. There were several planters like this along the ledge of the overlook, but there were visitors seated on benches alongside most of them. The shot and angle I grabbed below was the only option I could get without pestering a seated visitor. 

Above and below: These tables, chairs and a chess board on the overlook plaza were new to me. They weren't there the last time I was in the Sunken Garden, which was summer of 2017. 

Above and below: I like the full Sunken Garden perspective shots, even though they, too, can be a challenge if the shooter's goal is for optimum quality rather than simple documentation. I liked the one below particularly because it's the first time I've been able to accentuate the circular pedestrian path in this manner. 

While I wanted to avoid including people in my shot of the overlook planters in the photo presented a little higher in this post, I was not adverse to integrating visitors into other shots, as evidenced by the shot above and the first two below. I particularly liked the secondary element subtlety of the individual in the second shot below.  

I conclude with an exterior shot of the main entrance to the conservatory (above) and, below, a series of shots of Blake's Garden, developed in recent years to appeal to young visitors to the park. I did this shoot on Labor Day, and Blake's Garden was not open that day. So all of the shots you see below were taken from outside the Blake Garden's gate or through the perimeter fencing. The garden is named for Blake Bowell, a park enthusiast who died of brain cancer at age 25 in 2017. Blake was the son of Mark Bowell, executive director of the non-profit Friends of Garfield Park organization.