A Long Weekend in Vermont: Trapp Family Lodge Garden - Part 12 - Stowe, Vermont, USA

The Trapp Family Lodge is located on 2500 acres near Stowe.  Situated majestically on a hilltop, they maintain a beautiful flower garden for their guest's and visitor's pleasure.  And yes, this is the same Von Trapp family that served as the foundation and inspiration for the wildly popular 1960's Academy Award winning film, "The Sound of Music."

And this is another illustration of the value of wearing red and/or carrying a red umbrella on a photo trip.

One of the other photographers in the group was experimenting with a motion blur technique so I tried it as well. I couldn't quite get my point-and-shoot camera to offer a combination of slow enough shutter speed AND small enough aperture to get exactly what I wanted but, these turned out pretty well anyway after some experimenting. 

The technique was to simply rotate the camera about it's own axis while simultaneously pressing the shutter release.

Above, the baseline image.........and below....... the first result.........

It was difficult to keep the camera's center focus area on a particular flower since I held the camera in mid-air in front of me without looking through it.

I couldn't slow the shutter speed less than 1/20 second since my smallest aperture available was f8 without grossly overexposing the image.  (ISO was set at 80). I had to wait until a cloud passed overhead to take advantage of the reduced light levels. The ideal would have probably been somewhere around 1/5 second at f22 or thereabouts.

The other option was to try to spin the camera faster - easier said than done.

The baseline.......

..... the spin.

The baseline.........

.....the spin.

And the final image above - my favorite of the bunch - I was so excited, I forgot to make a baseline image.

As we wrapped up the trip and prepared to head home to Massachusetts, one last idea presented itself. Since we are all (well, almost all) of "a certain age," a Beatles Abbey Road inspired tribute photo seemed appropriate when we found ourselves at this crosswalk.  By the way, for future reference, where can a person nowadays find a John Lennon white disco suit? (Photo courtesy: Amy Davies Photography).