CHAPTER 14Four seasons: Spring

All photos in this chapter are © by Joe Konz 

For some Indy Southside residents, the arrival of spring each year is confirmed or validated by the flowering blooms throughout Garfield Park, whether it's the Dogwoods, Red Buds or Cherry Blossoms. Or maybe it's the annual Spring Bulb Show at the park's Conservatory. 

Others keep a close eye on when green leaves start returning to all of the park's deciduous trees, as shown in the first photo below, which presents a spring version of one of the author’s favorite park scenes: the pedestrian roundabout at the south end near the former Confederate Monument to Prisoners of War. 

Or maybe it's the return of outdoor tulips, hyacinths and crocuses. 

Or perhaps just seeing a dad playing Wiffle ball with his small children or runners venturing out wearing T-shirts and shorts again is enough for some to signal the start of a new outdoor-friendly season.

One can wax poetic for much longer than these few paragraphs to mark such an important landmark as the end of snow and bitter cold. But pictures can tell the same story, perhaps even more easily, so here goes …

Above: This guy seemed incredibly fearless as he approached me near the asphalt path on the park's south end on March 21, 2009. Afterward, I remembered that I'd seen a lot of people feeding squirrels in this area of the park and that these squirrels have gotten accustomed to easy handouts from creatures who look like me. Unfortunately, I had no food with me, so this one went without. 

In mid-March of 2007, after months of studying about macro photography, I bought myself an 85mm f/2.8 macro lens. A macro lens is a photography "tool" that enables one to see small and minute things closeup — and sharp — albeit sometimes at the risk of being unable to make out other things in the image because of blurriness, especially when using that wide-open f/2.8 aperture.

I spent a day roaming the park and Conservatory with the macro lens on the camera, seeing what kind of pictures it could get me. To end this chapter, I present a few of the results below. Some of these might seem a little ridiculous, such as the burrs or the interlocking fence post and nail ... but to a photographer exploring that new lens, it was an eye-opener. As for the very last photo below ... I did not stage that. That's exactly how I came across that scene.

Next up, Chapter 15: Four Seasons: Summer

Previously in the Garfield Park in Pictures series:

Introduction

Chapter 1: “America, We Remember”

Chapter 2: The Garfield Park Arts Center

Chapter 3: Bean Creek and Pleasant Run

Chapter 4: New Bean Creek pedestrian bridge

Chapter 5: Blake’s Garden

Chapter 6: Burrello Family Center and James Garfield statue

Chapter 7: Conservatory Crossing yuletide decorations

Chapter 8: Conservatory proper

Chapter 9: Conservatory permanent tropical plants and rain forest exhibit

Chapter 10: Garfield Park Farmers Market

Chapter 11: Fire Station 29

Chapter 12: Fireworks

Chapter 13: Four Seasons: Autumn

Spring blooms dress up the neighborhood

Since I began visiting Southern states and communities a few years ago, I've come to look forward to the spring blooms ... especially azaleas. In fact, in our first visit to Savannah, Ga., in March 2017, the wealth and prominence of azaleas there -- throughout the various neighborhood squares (parks) and at Bonaventure Cemetery -- bloom was what I most remember.

Azaleas populate the landscapes in North Carolina as well, and several azalea bushes are among the plantings we inherited when we bought our property here last July.

Because I made a point to swing through our neighborhood in January after a rare, heavy snowfall, I decided the other day to made a spring swing through Wynford Place and record the various colors in bloom.

Like on our property, azaleas and flowering dogwoods are popular in Wynford Place. You'll see a lot of those in the pictures with this post.

As always, to view a larger and sharper version of an image, click on the image. This is particularly helpful when accessing the blog while using a mobile device. To view a full gallery of images from this shoot, follow the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: I took all photos with a Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens. All compositions were bracketed for three exposures for processing in Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software. All of the pictures in this post are HDR images.