Huntington Gardens

anonymouscubananonymouscuban Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,586 Major grins
edited January 22, 2009 in Journeys
My wife and I both had today off. We had nothing to do so spur of the moment, we decided to head down to the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena. We got there right at noon so lighting was rather harsh. Did my best to grab some shots.

Statue outside of Library. I believe this is Triton. When we purchased our current home, we had a statue of this guy by our pool. Wierd because it's a Spanish style home. He still around, somewhere down on our slope.

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Another statue, this one a bronze female archer

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The newly built Chinese Garden. Huge koi fish in the large ponds and several walking brigdes make this a beautiful garden. This garden looks like it would be very nice to shut right at sunset. The sun was almost directly over head so I tried my best to fix this image in post. Thank god for LR 2's graduated filter tool.

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A few flowers and orchids from some of the many gardens

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We headed over to Old Town Pasadena for an early dinner and then stopped by City Hall

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Comments

  • pokerpoker Registered Users Posts: 63 Big grins
    edited January 20, 2009
    Nice pics. Thanks for sharing. I haven't been there in close to 16 years. That was the first place I was taken to just to simply take pictures all day. Nice to see it's still a great place for photos.
    I like photos especially ones shot by Canons. I'm just another fanboy :ivar
  • grimacegrimace Registered Users Posts: 1,537 Major grins
    edited January 20, 2009
    Beautiful looking captures!! I really like the last shot of city hall.
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  • Ed911Ed911 Registered Users Posts: 1,306 Major grins
    edited January 20, 2009
    I liking the Archer, Chinese Gardens image, and especially the City Hall shot. You really did well with the harsh light.

    I see you have a D300...did have your active D Lighting set to high? Just wondering.
    Remember, no one may want you to take pictures, but they all want to see them.
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  • TangoTango Registered Users Posts: 4,592 Major grins
    edited January 20, 2009
    clap.gif

    enjoyed the little tour...thanks
    Aaron Nelson
  • anonymouscubananonymouscuban Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,586 Major grins
    edited January 20, 2009
    poker wrote:
    Nice pics. Thanks for sharing. I haven't been there in close to 16 years. That was the first place I was taken to just to simply take pictures all day. Nice to see it's still a great place for photos.

    We used to have a membership but we didn't renew it this year. It really is a nice place, although this time of year is not the best time because almost everything is out of bloom. I plan to go back but later in the day to reshoot the Chinese garden.
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  • anonymouscubananonymouscuban Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,586 Major grins
    edited January 20, 2009
    Ed911 wrote:
    I liking the Archer, Chinese Gardens image, and especially the City Hall shot. You really did well with the harsh light.

    I see you have a D300...did have your active D Lighting set to high? Just wondering.

    Actually, I have Active D turned off. I shoot in RAW so I can deal with it in post. Although, when I first got my D300, I did take some test shots with the Active D on and I have to say, it works pretty well.
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  • TangoTango Registered Users Posts: 4,592 Major grins
    edited January 20, 2009
    RAW is nice.
    Aaron Nelson
  • anonymouscubananonymouscuban Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,586 Major grins
    edited January 20, 2009
    AaronNelson wrote:
    RAW is nice.

    Yes it is. It's one of those things that I wanted to slap myself for not doing earlier. I mean aside from storage, which is pretty cheap nowadays, I don't see any reason NOT to shoot in raw.

    It's funny because my wife complained a little when I set her camera to raw because she could store as many pics on her card. Her opinion changed very quickly when I showed her how to fix the exposure on a very under exposed image she took at a going away party. She was amazed how easily she was able to salvage a picture she was ready to delete.
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  • TangoTango Registered Users Posts: 4,592 Major grins
    edited January 20, 2009
    not to get into a RAW discussion.... but you are on the right track.
    even when you have full control of what you want out of the camera, why limit your post options?

    that would be like having a home with only one door and no windows....

    or driving a car with tunnel vision
    Aaron Nelson
  • QarikQarik Registered Users Posts: 4,959 Major grins
    edited January 21, 2009
    lovely set. I especially liked the building/statue shotsthumb.gif
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  • cj99sicj99si Registered Users Posts: 880 Major grins
    edited January 21, 2009
    loved them all, great exposures.
  • eL eSs VeeeL eSs Vee Registered Users Posts: 1,243 Major grins
    edited January 22, 2009
    Nice set. thumb.gif

    If I'm not mistaken, the statue in your first image is Poseidon, Greek Mythology's god of the sea.

    That's a great shot of the Pasadena city hall, too. I've been meaning to photograph it for a long time, but haven't since the late '80s.

    Great work.
    Lee
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  • anonymouscubananonymouscuban Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,586 Major grins
    edited January 22, 2009
    eL eSs Vee wrote:
    Nice set. thumb.gif

    If I'm not mistaken, the statue in your first image is Poseidon, Greek Mythology's god of the sea.

    That's a great shot of the Pasadena city hall, too. I've been meaning to photograph it for a long time, but haven't since the late '80s.

    Great work.

    You're probably right. I wasn't 100% on which Greek God it was.

    You need to check out the City Hall building. I hadn't seen it in at least 6 or 7 years. They must have done some extensive work to it because I do not remember it being so nice. That shot is from the inside court yard. It is very nice... actually a place you'd want to go to sit and read a book.

    There is a nice vantage point from the street behind the building too but I didn't have time to shoot from there. I want to revisit the shot though.
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