Sighting At The Botanical Garden

Merry Christmas From Saint Louis

Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Wormhole

Having to go back into the archives a bit because there has been so little time to shoot. (&%$ work.) When you start law school in this country they teach you a bunch of old maxims we get from our field's English origins. One of them has it that the law is a jealous mistress.

Anyway, this is back at Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Many displays change from year to year but this walk-through light tube is ever popular. Photo taken from the flight deck of the Starship Enterprise, if you will give me some artistic license.

               

The Mother Ship Has Landed

That's what the Climatron makes me think of when it glows with green LEDs. The image below could be moon rise or set in another solar system.          

Angels On The South Side

We made it to the Garden Glow. A light rain was falling with a temperature of 38F/3C. It made our visit shorter than other years. Still, the display always has some old favorites and new arrangements.

Nothing changes in the top image. It's not really an angel but the statue of Persephone next to the home of Henry Shaw, who founded the garden in the 19th Century. Below, the silhouette of an angel in front of the Climatron, a geodesic dome.     

Juno

A statue of Juno stands in a back corner of the botanical garden behind Henry Shaw's house. She always seems to be hitchhiking, even on a brilliant summer day, as in this old post. Perhaps due to the stories of scary people thumbing rides these days, she hasn't made much progress.

We made it to Marysville, Kansas, yesterday, driving from Kansas City in a cold rain. Wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with Mrs. C's mother, who will be 97 on Saturday, and her youngest sister. There is steady freezing rain and dropping temperatures as I write this Thursday evening, which might interfere with the big annual party out on the family farm today. Hoping for rural pix on Saturday.                  

Henry Shaw's House

Henry Shaw was born in Sheffield, England, in 1800. He made a bunch of money in the hardware and steel products trade in St. Louis, enough to retire at the age of 40. He was an avid botanist and his estate became the Missouri Botanical Garden, one of the finest in the country. His home is open on special occasions. This was the first time we had actually been in it. 

The photo below is of the next building over. Not Shaw's house but a nice 19th Century structure.              

The Climatron

The Climatron is a big geodesic dome in the botanical garden. It is a greenhouse of sorts with an ingenious climate control system, dividing the space into cooler and warmer, wetter and dryer zones. It's spectacularly lit during the Garden Glow with the light display that continues into a reflecting pool. It's been around for 55 yrars and is considered one of the most architecturally significant buildings in America.              

Persephone

The statue of Persephone has long stood beside the home of Henry Shaw, founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden. She was a goddess with a complex role in Greek mythology, most importantly for the growth of grain and vegetables. (She doubled as queen of Hades.) The sculpture is lit for maximum drama at night.

Abstract Trees

This is what meets your eye when you step into the garden from the entry building. I assume they are meant to resemble abstract Christmas trees using the nightlight theme. The second image makes me think of a very spare Buddhist altar. The general shapes and symmetries are right but it could use some gold.                     

Garden Glow Again

It's time for the Missouri Botanical Garden's holiday Garden Glow event. Last night was a special preview for garden members only. It was blessedly uncrowded.

They had both new features and old favorites. This light tunnel is one of the latter. Note that the woman on the left is taking a picture on her phone.

Lots more of this to come.                 

Meanwhile, Back In The Lou

Need some filler and this will do. We spent yesterday sitting around my sister's house in New Jersey, watching a marathon of all the episodes of Neil deGrasse Tyson's Cosmos and munching on the leftovers of Thursday's enormous dinner. I read the manual for some photo editing software I never learned to use. Haven't done so much nothing in a long time.

Well, I did edit some more pictures from the family visit to Garden Glow Tuesday night. It was a very different experience from shooting on a tripod earlier. Getting rid of it gave much more freedom of composition. My camera and some software let me shoot handheld at ISO 6400. These were some of the results.

Didn't really need the advice in the bottom image. Going into NYC today, though. Pix tomorrow.                     

Back In The Glow

Son-in-law Brian's parents are up from Houston for the week so we took the whole group back to Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Garden. We were there by ourselves a couple of weeks ago for photographer's night. No tripods for the rest of the run so these are all handheld, mostly at ISO 6400 and the new 40 mm f 2.8 pancake lens.

Madeleine was getting a new tooth or two and was a bit of a crankypants. Grandma is forever indulgent, though. Note that her blouse and the kid's jacket both have snowflakes.                         

Persephone

According so some website or other

Persephone was the goddess queen of the underworld, wife of the god Haides. She was also the goddess of spring growth, who was worshipped alongside her mother Demeter in the Eleusinian Mysteries. This agricultural-based cult promised its initiates passage to a blessed afterlife.

This statue of the goddess is an old favorite of ours in the Missouri Botanical Garden. Like so much else, she is illuminated in blue during Garden Glow. It is an appropriate representation of her withdrawal, along with vegetation, under the earth during winter.

                

Variations

Up and down the same axis of reflecting pools, this time with a warmer palette. It's been a heck of a week at work. Just eye candy and nothing more to say.                  

Blue Light Special

Blue and green were the dominant if not exclusive colors at this year's Garden Glow. The top picture is of the Climatron, a geodesic dome that contains variations on tropical environments, and its reflecting pool, rather busy at the moment.

Below, the reflection of a bare tree in another pool and a tree covered in blue LEDs. The green at the lower left is the Climatron.

The reference in the title may be obscure to international readers. If interested see here.                         

Fun With LEDs

Two tall curtains of light along a dark garden trail. Sprinkles of color overhead, source unknown. This is a passage in the Garden Glow show, constantly changing and pulsing with music. It's a good thing they don't allow smoking in the garden because these days something other than tobacco could, um, cause issues. Groovy, man.

It's all electronic. A few years ago this would not have been possible.                  

You Could Even Say It Glows

It's time for Garden Glow once again at the Missouri Botanical Garden, one of the area's gems. They light up the night with eye-popping displays through the paths and plants.

MoBot usually doesn't allow photogs to use tripods ay this event. The crowds can be large.  People would go sprawling in the darkness.over those extended legs. This year, though, they have two nights for photographers only and limit the attendance. Spread out those graphite legs all you want.

Mrs. C and I went last night. These are just the first edits. More to come.                         

Light Maze

Our Botanical Garden has a Victorian area around Henry Shaw's house. One of the features is a hedgerow maze. It's not as big and bad as some we've seen in Europe, particularly the UK. (My family thought they were going to have to drop supplies from a helicopter before we found our way out of the one at Edinburgh Castle.) 

There is a cute tower next to it called the Piper Observatory. One could observe the stars, the gardens or guide the lost to safety. The second photo shows the entrance to the maze. It was easier to find your way with all those LEDs marking the rows, at least if you are my height.        

Christmas Or Halloween?

Although some may question my taste, this is my favorite photo from the Garden Glow series. It's called The Lantern Tree and looks more like an illustration from an Edgar Allen Poe story or maybe the scary middle parts of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. That's Henry Shaw's tomb lit from within. He's the guy who started the garden and my favorite STL refuge, nearby Tower Grove Park. Tomorrow's shot from the Glow will be less macabre. A little.

Madeleine Monday

Getting our favorite tike ready to go out into the Garden. Just room light with a 50 mm lens. The bib says "I Run This Place."