I wanted to share a review from the Howard County Time of the La Primavera show my photos are in at the Meeting House Gallery in Columbia, Maryland.
You can find a PDF of the article at Howard County Times July 5 2018
And don’t forget, La Primavera is on display until July 28. The Meeting House Gallery is located at 5885 Robert Oliver Place in Columbia, Maryland and is open daily from 9 AM – 9 PM .
After being on the road for most of April, it’s great to be home again photographing at some of my favorite gardens. Last week I took a day to visit Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. What is now Longwood Gardens is the former estate of Pierre S. du Pont who purchased the property in 1906. As early as 1907, he laid out the first Garden Walk which is still one of the most popular sections of the garden today. Over the next several decades, du Pont and his wife Alice Belin developed what has become Longwood Gardens including formal fountain gardens, woods, meadows, and a four-acre conservatory. After the du Ponts’ deaths, the estate opened to the public as Longwood Gardens under the auspices of the Longwood Foundation.
Longwood is my favorite garden. No matter what time of year I visit, I always find something wonderful to photograph. Last week I found many beautiful spring flowers in bloom – so I thought I’d share a bit of the beauty I saw there with you today.
Angelique Tulips © 2018 Patty Hankins
Bleeding Hearts © 2018 Patty Hankins
Swan Blue & White Columbine © 2018 Patty Hankins
Liberty Lavender Snapdragons © 2018 Patty Hankins
Showy Trillium © 2018 Patty Hankins
Yellow Trillium © 2018 Patty Hankins
I try to visit Longwood Gardens about every six weeks. I can’t wait to see what I find on my next visit.
If you’d like to join me on one of my trips to Longwood Gardens, the DC Area Flower Safari Meetup Group does visit there several times a year. We’d love to have you join us one of our visits to Longwood Gardens or one of the other gardens in the Washington DC area. You can learn more about the DC Flower Safari at https://www.meetup.com/DC-Area-Flower-Safari/
I’m excited to finally share all the details for my spring 2018 show – La Primavera. I’ll be exhibiting with four other artists in a show at the Meeting House Gallery, Oakland Mills Interfaith Center at 5885 Robert Oliver Place in Columbia, Maryland. The show will be on display from May 5 – July 28, 2018. The gallery is open daily from 8 AM to 9 PM and is open to the public.
From wildflower filled scenes to close up photographs of pink and yellow flowers, my photos in the show are a celebration of spring.
Smoky Mountain Wildflowers © 2009 Patty Hankins
Joining me in the show are Photographer Don James, Water Color & Acrylic Painter Diane Shipley, Mixed Media Artist Teresa Sites and Ceramic Artist Jann Tamberello.
The Opening Reception for La Primavera will be on Sunday May 6 from 1 – 3 PM.
Pink Cloni Ranunculus © 2018 Patty Hankins
I realize many of you aren’t in the DC area, so can’t get to see my photographs in person. You can see all of my photographs that are in the show at https://beautifulflowerpictures.com/store/la-primavera-spring-2018/
Use the coupon code LaPrimavera to save 25% on matted photos from the show. The sale on the website ends on May 31, 2018.
I hope to see you on Sunday May 6 for the opening reception
At the opening reception for my Petals show, several people asked me why I’ve switched from photographing flowers in gardens and in the wild, to photographing them in studio. My answers seemed to surprise them, so I thought I’d share five of the reasons I love to photograph flowers in my studio with you today.
When I’m photographing in my studio, I get to choose the flowers I want to photograph. I just head over to the local floral wholesaler and choose whatever flowers catch my fancy. If i’m in the mood for pink flowers, I can find them. If I’m looking for carnations, I’ll have many colors to choose from. If I’m photographing at a garden, I can only photograph what they have planted rather than having an almost unlimited variety of flowers to choose from. Here’s a peek at some of the flowers I had to choose from on Monday.
I can photograph in my studio any time I want to. I just have to head down to my basement and everything is ready to go. I don’t have to check the weather, or wonder how the light will be at a botanical garden. Instead, I can just head downstairs and create the light I want to use for photographing the flowers.
I can get as close to the flowers as I want to. In my studio I can put my tripod right up against the table and use multiple extension tubes to get within inches of the flowers I’m photographing. At a garden, I’m limited by where the flowers are in the beds. This spray rose was about 2 inches across when fully open. In my studio I was able to get close enough to fill the frame of my camera with it to capture this image.
Blush Parasol Spray Rose 2018 Patty Hankins
I can arrange the flowers however I want to. One of my favorite ways to photograph flowers is to bring a bunch of blossoms close to each other and look for patterns and textures in the petals. In my studio, I can arrange the flowers exactly how I want to – removing leaves or blossoms that aren’t in the right place. At the gardens, I’m not able to move the flowers into arrangements I want to photograph.
And only in my studio do I get the help of my studio assistants, Dusty, Jackson and Ansel. Dusty loves to curl up in her own personal sunbeam under the lights. While Jackson and Ansel always try to take time to stop and taste the flowers.
If you would like to learn to photograph flowers in a studio (and maybe get to work with my assistants), join me on March 17 for my Photographing Flowers in the workshop. You’ll get a chance to work with my strobes, my continuous lights, the various modifiers, and backgrounds I use in my studio.
You can learn more about the workshop at https://beautifulflowerpictures.com/photographing-flowers-studio-workshop-2018/
As you’re reading this, I’m busy in my basement studio matting and framing the photographs for my show Petals at Artists & Makers Studios 2 in Rockville, MD. Bill and I will hang the show on Tuesday and the opening reception is next Friday evening, February 2 from 6-9 PM.
I have had so much fun preparing for the show and I love so many of the new photos, especially the photos of the ranunculus blossoms. So I thought I’d share my new ranunculus photos with you today.
Center of an Orange Ranunculus © 2018 Patty Hankins
Petals of a Purple & White Ranunculus © 2018 Patty Hankins
Petals of a Pink Cloni Ranunculus © 2018 Patty Hankins
Center of a Pink & White Ranunculus © 2018 Patty Hankins
Center of a Pink Cloni Ranunculus © 2018 Patty Hankins
Center of a Purple & White Ranunculus © 2017 Patty Hankins
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing a sneak peek at some of the photos in my show. I’ll be adding all the new photos to my website in the next week.
Be sure to keep an eye out for next Friday’s blog post – I’ll have a few surprises for you related to my Petals show.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in my studio photographing flowers recently – and not just because the flowers have stopped blooming here in the DC area. I’m excited to share that the next exhibition of my photography will be in February 2018. I’ll be having a solo show of flowers photographed in my studio at Artists & Makers Studios 2 in Rockville, Maryland. The show, Petals, will be on display from February 1-22, with an opening reception on Friday February 2.
I’m still at the photographing and doing basic edits on photos for the show. I’ll decide which photos will be in the show in early January and do my more in-depth edits then. But in the meantime, I thought I’d share a few of the flowers I’ve been photographing to give you a hint of what might be in the show.
Lavender Carnations
Lavender Carnations © 2017 Patty Hankins
Bright Pink Mini-Callas
Bright Pink Mini Callas © 2017 Patty Hankins
Amanda Dahlia
Amanda Dahlia © 2017 Patty Hankins
Pink Cloni Ranunculus
Pink Cloni Ranunculus © 2017 Patty Hankins
Brush Parasol Spray Rose
Blush Parasol Spray Rose © 2017 Patty Hankins
Peaches and Dreams Dahlia
Peaches and Dreams Dahlias © 2017 Patty Hankins
I’ve hope you’ve enjoyed a sneak peek at some of my recent studio photos. If you’d like to learn how I create photos like these, I will be teaching my Photographing Flowers in the Studio workshop on March 17. You can find more information about the workshop at https://beautifulflowerpictures.com/photographing-flowers-studio-workshop-2018/