Barnsley Resort Adairsville Georgia

Last week, my husband had a meeting at Barnsley Resort, north of Atlanta. I tagged along and am I glad I did! I loved this place! It had history, scenery, gardens, good food....great place! The accommodations were built like little houses or cottages, with high ceilings, claw foot bath tubs and wonderful toiletries from the Spa (Lavender mint....yes, I am going to have to buy some!) Above was our porch, where I sat and read, overlooking the pond down below.
My husband played golf but they also had a pool, hunting trips, horseback riding, etc. There is a lot to do!
We had breakfast at the Woodlands Grill below, overlooking the golf course.

The ruins of the manor were fascinating to me! A tornado took the roof off in 1906, leaving the brick structure. What a great place for a wedding! There is a museum (in the building that was the kitchen) with a lot of information. I really enjoyed looking at the items and history there.

 Below is the Rice House built in 1854. I never quite figured out what was in the house, but it was lovely to look at!

More of the gardens and manor....I liked it so much, I made two trips to see it, one in the afternoon and one in the morning!

Our cottage was next to the swan pond and golf course.

Yes, I will have to return....after all, I have to go back and get some of the lavender Mint cream and soap!

Sandy Springs Garden Tour - Winterthur Drive

The second house on the garden tour was located outside the perimeter, on the banks of the Chattahoochee River. This was my favorite garden of the tour.

A 100 foot pond with bog plants and waterlilies great you as you head to the back garden.

Above is the view from the river.

There were many windchimes and birdhouses. Below is the "wind chime garden"...I love windchimes and birdhouses!

Below, you can see the leaves from a giant leaf magnolia.

Joyce and I decided that we could sit here on this bench for hours. We wondered if the people that owned these beautiful spots spent much time in them.

I had never thought of using a mirror outside, but it is lovely in this cozy vignette...here's looking at you!

The owner's taste in art ranged from very classical to very whimsical.

The house is just as lovely as the grounds. The front doors were salvaged from a Danish castle circa 18th century.

I heard one of the volunteers say that the partys here could be quite grand....I imagine so! Thanks for joining me.

Flower Closeups

The structures of flowers just amaze me! I never understand how people think beautiful things like these "just happened". The colors, textures and shapes are just mind blowing! Here is a flame azalea and below what the sign called a piedmont azalea. They are obviously related to each other.

This is another place where Joyce and I use different equipment. She is a big tripod user and me a monopod user. That kind of sums up our whole philosophies of photography. I am a fast mover, see all you can see kind of photographer and she is very meticulous and methodical (which is a good thing with photography). I often see the big picture and she sees a smaller picture, but in a much more precise way. I think the styles complement each other and add things to the way we work. I might see a composition that she doesn't see, but when it comes to getting down to the very nitty gritty, best exposure and all that technical stuff, she knows things I don't know. I think we both recognize these differences and that is fine.

Once on our three week trip, she did say to me, Just go ahead and GO!....I know you are dying too! LOL! Of course, I replied, No, I am fine...take your time. She did buy a monopod and I am going to get a tripod, so at least we are both flexible. She says you cannot do macro photography without a tripod and she will look at these and say they are out of focus, but to the naked eye, I am happy with them. It all depends on what you plan on doing with your photos. If you blow up a macro shot, it needs to be precise. If you are putting it on a blog or on a PowerPoint presentation (my minister uses my flower photos on his welcome slide at church) these are fine. Different personalities make the world go round and make it interesting! What is your photography philosophy? I bet it spills into the rest of your life also!

One thing to consider when doing a closeup is the background. Of course, it helps to shoot in aperture so that the background is blurred. Move around the choices of flowers and see what the background is behind the flower. Then you have to decide on which part you want the focus of the flower to be. Did you luck out and get a bumble bee?...perhaps you want that to be the focus point. With auto focus, you have little control of what it focuses on, so you might want to manually focus. Joyce takes it up a notch and puts the camera on live view so she can zoom in and see the precise details of what is in focus. Maybe I will try that on the cherry blossoms in DC next week.

On the photo below, the focus is a little misplaced....I would prefer it be on the actual white bloom rather than that leaf area, but I am using this one to show an example of a mottled background. I do have photos with the bloom in focus. White blooms are sometimes hard to shoot, especially in sunlight, as it washes our the highlights. Anyone know what this bush is called?

A dark background like below presents a strong contrast. Full sunlight is not the best conditions for closeup as you will blow out the highlights and get no details as well as wash out the color. Look for flowers in partial shade.