Butchart Gardens, Victoria Canada




Part of the main gardens - Click to see larger

Jan and I had a wonderful opportunity to go on our second cruise to Alaska this summer, and we went on a different cruise line. It was a different experience!

One of the highlights of our trip this time was a night tour of the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia. It is an amazing old limestone quarry that was transformed into a series of beautiful gardens by Mr. Butchart's wife Jennie. The photo above is from the first garden we toured, which was the main garden area and the major part of the old quarry. We were told while touring that Mrs. Butchart had rapelled down the steep sides of the quarry, planting ivy as she went. The ivy now covers nearly every wall of the quarry and is quite spectacular.

I hope to get back there someday, as the groundskeepers plant seasonal plants all along the walkways in the Gardens, and it would be a different experience each time you visited, depending on the season.

Hope you enjoy the photo. If you'd like to see it larger, click on the photo and it will load in a new window. 

All the best,
Mike Z

PS: here's a short video (about a minute and a half) showing the seasons of the Butchart Gardens:
5 Seasons of the Butchart Gardens

 

 

Blue Moon Last Night, Austin TX






Blue Moon, August 31st, 2012 Austin TX

  

A Blue Moon, as most of you probably know by now, is the third full moon in a season with four full moons. Last night, I had to go out and try to get a decent full moon photo for the occasion! Unfortunately, there were thin clouds over the moon, so it was impossible to get a clear shot.

I wrote on someone's Facebook page that I can never hear the words Blue Moon without thinking about the song from the 50's/60's by the Marcels. I hear in my head most clearly "Baw buh buh Baw buh Dangy Dang Dang, buh Dangy Dawg Dig Bluuue Mooooon, You saw me standing alone...." Ah the memories...

Till next time!

Mike Z

New Mexico Sky, Albuquerque Aug 4, 2012




Clouds and sun over the convention center

 

Today I'm in Albuquerque, NM at a convention, and at lunch time I just had to get outside for a few minutes. These wispy clouds caught my eye, but alas no camera. Then I remembered my cell phone! So I took this photo. I will say that the sky is not quite as blue out there as in the photo, but it captures the clouds like I wanted.




Another view of clouds over the convention center

 The photos were taken with my Samsung 4G Touch cell phone. I didn't do any cropping/editing to the photos, they are just as they came out of the camera phone.

Hope your day is going well.

Thanks for stopping by,

Mike Z

Full Moon, Austin TX 10:30pm

Full Moon, Austin TX

I have never really tried to shoot a full moon with my D7000 before, because I was a little intimidated by some of the miserable failures I had experienced with other cameras before. But tonight the moon was so bright and beautiful I just had to try.

After several blown out attempts (the moon is VERY bright tonight) I tried the aperture very small and used the in camera flash. And, I got an almost passable photo. Stumbled on it by sheer luck. No tripod, but I should have used one.

I am pretty proud of this photo even though it won't ever be a contest winner. I might just give it a try next full moon! :-)

All the best,
Mike Z