Kew Gardens

Where: London, England

When: May 12, 2012

With: Nic

After discovering we were long lost solemates in photography, Nic and I decided to take a day trip out to Kew Gardens while Divya and Dave were off at an MBA sports tournament weekend. Since spring should have been around the corner, we thought that gardens would be a perfect way to enjoy the outdoors and take our time playing around with the settings of our cameras.

Kew Gardens, or more properly, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, are located in southwest London, about a 30 min train ride out of the center. Created in 1759, the garden recently celebrated their 250th anniversary. Once someone's private gardens, they now contain the world's largest collection of living plants. 

It was a lovely day that consisted of the two of us wandering, talking shop about lenses and aperture, and the plants served as perfect subjects. These were probably my favorite of the day.

 Though, I really loved the lighting on these guys.

The gardens were huge and sprawling, with sections containing different types of trees and flowers.

 On the hunt for the fields of bluebells.

  Large lake in the middle. 

Peacocks roam the grounds, but after the day at Warwick Castle, we tried to limit the number of peacock pictures. However, this peacock practically joined this couple's romantic lunch, which was pretty funny.

This pagoda was built in for the original gardens in 1761 and remains to this day.

 It was nice to see what I could do with a camera and a little bit of time. 

Randomly, in the middle of the garden, is a giant iron structure that allows you to "walk along the treetops". Unfortunately, while enjoying the view from the top, I realised I failed miserably in my day of photography by forgetting to charge the camera battery. Sadly, I had to call it with my photo taking, but it allowed me a rare opportunity - to see the world without looking through my lens. Here is the last shot from the top of the walkway.

We wandered and enjoyed the rest of the day. The only other thing I had to snap a shot of with the ol' iPhone was a display of the Olympic rings made out of flowers. It was pretty impossible to get a shot of these without a crane, but you kinda get the idea.

All in all, I had a wonderful day and learned some new things on the camera (I think I will remain an M girl, the Av just didn't work for me). Enough shop talk, these gardens were gorgeous and the perfect way to enjoy a sunny day.