365 - Portland Japanese Garden
One of the most photographed trees in the world was on the menu for today's lunch out. And it resides deep in the city of Portland, Oregon- at a little place called the Japanese Garden.
Now, I must start off by saying that everything that happened in this shoot was on a much smaller scale than I imagined. The entire garden is (very) small, especially when compared to other gardens I've visited such as the Denver Botanical Gardens and Garvin Woodlands. There just wasn't a lot of material to shoot.
On the flip side, everything that WAS there was extremely well taken care of, and the attention to detail was astronomical. With this came an aura of snobbery, but I'll get to that in a bit.
My main objective was to find one of the most famous trees in the world- a small maple tree full of vibrant fall colors. It can be argued that this tree was initially made famous by Peter Lik, but there have been several other mainstream photographers that have blown the tree into society.
The thing was, I wasn't technically "in season." I'd done some vague research about the tree online, and read that it's best to shoot on a sunny day in the fall. Well, it was a sunny day in the end of summer. So I was close, but not technically on the money. So I didn't expect much. I figured I'd find some other crazy shit to shoot in the garden, and the tree might just have to be vibrant green instead of full fall spectrum.
We kicked the shoot off in the AM, and got tickets for literally as early as possible- 10AM. Which didn't seem to make much of a difference. The park was ABSOLUTELY PACKED.
I started off by finding a tree that looked similar to what I wanted- strange yellow leaves and lots of twisted, dark branches. Figured it would be a nice warm up for when the big boy came along. I went through the motions- focus stacking, tripod, and ended up with this shot:
“Yellow Mania”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 800 ~ 68mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/60s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
First off, I love this shot. HOWEVER- it's technically a little off. I'm not sure why some of the branches came out blurry/out of focus. I'm referencing the branches to the right... The whole thing is stacked and sharp besides that branch, soooooo... I'm GUESSING it had something to do with the focus stack. Even though I shot at f/9, one of the focuses must have been off because it was a small(?) depth of field. I'm not 100% sure to be honest.
Annnnnd right after that shot, I got told to stop recording video by some old hag. If you watch my vlogs, I normally break down my compositions step by step- but apparently that wasn't allowed here because it "disturbs the peace." Which was ironic because there was a baby screaming it's ass of behind me and 50,000 people crammed into it’s tiny walkways.
So I had to stop recording video, which honestly pisses me off a lot. I don't understand the reasoning behind rules against no video/photos. We paid to get in- let us record it. Especially when you pay $10 for a tripod fee, and another $165 for a photography "membership" that allows you to use your photos commercially. Fuck that- whoever makes these rules probably just sucks at with a camera and wants to stop anyone from getting a solid shot/video.
I decided to keep recording anyway. And it turns out the people who work here are real Nazis Haley got yelled at for setting her camera bag on a generic rock (which didn't even have any moss on it...) and I got yelled for having my tripod in a walkway, with plenty of room on either side for people to walk. Unfortunately, I didn't get enough footage for a solid vlog because I was looking over my shoulder or getting yelled at every two seconds- which believe it or not fucks up your audio a bit.
We continued on, and I found a peaceful Zen rock garden. I guess that helped my mood a bit. It is a Zen garden, right? Haha... well if you call a Zen garden a place where there's a million people every inch, and employees yelling at the photographers, it's totally chill.
OK, I'll stop bitching about the place lol. It's actually really beautiful if you focus on the plants and scenes. Here's the rock scene I was referencing:
“Oasis Yang”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 160 ~ 63mm ~ f/8 ~ 1/60s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I wanted to play with balance in this shot, so I kept everything off to one side. But to show the viewer that I was mindful of space, I kept the circle around the rocks in the frame to the right. I like to think of it as some strange rendition of yin/yang. We finished walking along the small one-way path, and stumbled upon the "famous tree," completely by accident.
It's in a very awkward spot- right on the side of a staircase at the end of a one way path. So I had to move to the side every time someone walked by- which was every couple seconds. I snagged the shot very fast, and didn't have time to figure out a solid focus stack strategy. Now that I'd been yelled at three times, I REALLY didn't want to get kicked out of the place for actually blocking a pathway this time.
Here's the shot:
“Veins of Life”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 160 ~ 43mm ~ f/8 ~ 1/60s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I didn't realize that the tree was actually only 8 feet or so tall. From the pictures online, it looks to be something of 30-40 feet tall, like something you can stand under. In reality, it's just a wide angle lens that tricks the mind.
I absolutely love this shot. The colors, branches, and everything else look so magical. Which is funny because it's hard to imagine that with 50 million people walking by. Haha, oh well. Let's talk about the edit for a second.
I REALLY had to pull the colors out, which I'm assuming is because it's not technically in season. I also did a lot of patchwork to remove the blue blown out sky from behind the tree. I like the minimal tree aesthetic, and the sky wasn't doing it for me.
Ironically, we ended up leaving after that shot anyway because the park was small and we were tired of the frenzy. We stopped by the International Rose Test Garden (free!) on the way out, but I didn't get any notable shots. It was basically just macro-rose-shot-ville which I wasn't feeling because I just nailed such a banger before this.
Anyway, that's the shoot today folks! Some weird blend of tranquility and getting yelled at. ByYeYEYEEEeeee.
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