September Reflections at Childhood's Gate

I am a big fan of the children's garden at the Arboretum. Its name is Childhood's Gate, and I have been visiting there since a day or two after it opened in July of 2014. The gardens are all amazing, and I spend lots of time there, but the children's garden is a little sparkling jewel all unto itself.

Some very interesting, high-drama sorts of things have been happening in my life lately, and there is one further bit of news I want to share. The company that created our children's garden contacted the Arboretum asking for a photographer who might take pictures of the gardens, that they could use on their website and in books and articles about their design process. Want to guess who they picked? Yes, me!

Now, I have never undertaken a photography project for actual payment before. And since I have never done this sort of thing before, I'm afraid of failing miserably (which might be why I have not spoken of this till now). So far, this has been a learning experience unto itself. Someday when the project has been completed, I'll write about the process here, and about all of what I learned.

For now, we're still in the early phases of talking about what views and angles we want, and what forms need to be filled out and so on (yes, actual children will be involved, so parents will need to sign release forms). These are all useful things to know about, of course.

I've also made my work supervisor aware, and promised to use vacation time for any time spent away from work, as photography is NOT what I was hired to do here - believe it or not! ;-) She was enthusiastic and very encouraging about my undertaking the project; in fact, she told me she thinks that this is the sort of thing I probably OUGHT to do in my retirement, whenever that comes.

I have already taken many photos of the gardens over these past two plus years, and you have seen some of them here. I am apparently partial to reflection shots, and here are a few of those:

Reflections at Childhood's Gate, August 2014

Starring the Dancing Girls in: The Halloween Ride!, October 2014

Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax, May 2015

For this particular shot, I kneeled down and used the reflecting surface of that metal water container beneath the pump that appears in the middle of this prior shot of the gardens, taken this summer.

I find, as I am putting together photos and ideas for this shoot, that I have my own understanding and philosophy of the children's garden and what it is for:

*a garden for the enjoyment and education of children of ALL ages
*a garden that is not just a pretty place but a WORKING garden that provides food for the community (1027 pounds of food donated to the State College Food Bank as of this week)
*a garden open to and inclusive of all cultures and peoples
*a haven for wildlife
*a garden that is a delight not just in summertime but in all seasons of the year (for example, the Christmas Tree in the Glass House in December, covered in ornaments hand made by local children)

A thing that happened to me earlier this year, that really sucked, is that my photo drive (around 1.3 TB in size) crashed back in March. I was hysterical over it for a few days and then just somewhat worried about it ever since then. But something good came out of it, if you can believe that. (As Mary Oliver might say, even that box of darkness turned out to be a gift, though I didn't understand it at the time.)

Before that, I had a habit of happy-snapping lots of snapshot type photos while I was out somewhere, and then I'd come back to my computer and download them and pick the best. Now, I am trying very consciously to take fewer, better photos. (Yes, that's TWO goals. Fewer. Better.)

I am working more on arranging good compositions that are more complex, and seeing things differently and setting up more creative shots while I am in the field. I think about things like bokeh and framing.

Instead of snapping 300 shots at a photo shoot, I may take about 65. I'm still no good at deleting much - mea culpa - but at least the collection isn't growing as fast as it was there for a while!

So here's to seeing things differently, and taking fewer, but better, pictures. Here is to changing . . . for the better, and growing, and learning new things, and not being afraid to take risks. The song: David Bowie, with Changes.