The Tea Garden

During a trip to San Franciso in February 2010, we stopped at Golden Gate Park to visit the Japanese Tea Garden.  The weather was largely a dreary "white" overcast sky for much of the visit, and it was my typical luck that they had drained most of the ponds for cleaning.  I was determined to make the most of my time, however, and I decided to experiment with a series of bracketed exposures of different scenes that I could merge with high dynamic range (HDR) software later on.  All these photos are merged from three exposures:  one at correct exposure, one overexposed, and underexposed (0 EV, +2 EV, -2 EV).  Using Photomatrix, the results were quite pleasing to me.  In these photos, I was looking for an "artistic" dreamlike look.  While some of the contrast is sacrificed to obtain the full dynamic range of the photo, it allows you capture a greater level of detail throughout, which is much to my liking.  I took these photos on a tripod with my Canon 50D, using a wide angle lens.  During this photo, I got a break in the sky for some nice blue sky that nicely contrasted the vegetation and the beautiful wooden pagoda at the entrance to the garden (f16, ISO 100, 13 mm).      PLEASE CLICK ON THESE PHOTOS AND OPEN UP THE LARGER SCREEN VERSIONS...YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED WITH THE AMAZING DETAIL!!!

Divine Meditation

(f9, ISO 100, 15 mm).

Trees, Pagodas, and Moss

Another garden view...

(f18, ISO 100, 20mm).

Serenity Tea

During our visit to the Tea Garden, we stopped and enjoyed some tea of course!  One section of the garden has a tea house where you can order a variety of teas and snacks.  I had some green tea, while Rhonda ordered a green tea latte.  I thought my cup and tea kettle sitting on the counter where we enjoyed our time sipping away and admiring the serene view would make for an interesting artistic photo.  My brother, Brad, is a painter in the Northwest, and his paintings often feature a peaceful setting where a nice cup of coffee can be enjoyed while enjoying nature.  I modeled these two tea house photos after his paintings, and went for the surreal artistic ambience.  Againg, make sure you click on the photos to really enjoy the background detail in the garden!

Green Tea Latte!!!

Here is the second tea house photo....featuring a wonderful green tea latte and a green tea jelly treat.  The tea latte was every bit as good as it sounds, and the treat was fun to eat with a set of chopsticks that were provided.  And the time was as peaceful and relaxing as the photo portrays!