New Perspectives At Gibbs Gardens

Having visited Gibbs Gardens in Ball Ground GA a few times, I was looking for different scenes. We arrived around 11 am and thankfully there were some clouds in the sky to soften the bright sun with a warm mid 80 degrees Fahrenheit forecast. Just outside the visitor center we took a short ride on the tram up to Manor house, which is the owner’s private residence. Being a gadget geek, I saw the gentleman sitting next to me on the tram had a new phone and he confirmed it was a Samsung Galaxy S8, which he recently received and was trying out the camera. That infinity screen looks amazing in person !

After a brief look at the popular front terrace vista, I remembered the task of looking for new perspectives-onward ! Just past the entry on the back of the house is a park bench with an architectural brick wall creating a secondary frame. Using Topaz Studio beta, texture and color were added around the bench.

After meandering around the house I started exploring the terraced walk back to the visitor’s center. To my surprise I discovered a Koi pond. As I was looking like a tool with my camera around my neck, camera bag around shoulder & tripod in-hand, I went for a low tripod shot with the Rockinon 14 mm. This is an amazing and versatile glass and I decided to try it out to get as much of the pond in frame. Well that was the intent, but I ended up cropping half of the pond out in the end so you could see those cool Koi !

Back in the main garden area I saw some leaves reaching for the sky. Influenced by Scott Norris, I was practicing my appreciation for minimalism and removing distractions to give me this relaxing scene.

I haven’t done a composite for a while and the Lilly pods where some of the main attractions at the garden this day. So keeping with my theme of looking for different perspectives, I added a Lilly pod to another photo for more mystery.

Before you reach the Japanese Gardens, there is a walkway with some benches on both sides. I was inspired by Japanese tapestries here.

Just before our group left, I saw some flower beds over in the distance so I decided to take a look. I had an idea for a moodygram ! Turned into representing flowers that were preserved in rock, or fossils; just like the mosquito in Jurassic Park 🙂