Gardens – MikeHawkey.com

A beautiful hot day took us to the Auckland Botanic Gardens for a walk today. 64-hectare’s and home to over 10,000 plants, we only scratched the surface with todays visit. Although its been around in some form since the 1960’s (I think), I had never been before, from memory.

Beautifully set and maintained, the crowds in the car park flooding out onto the road suggested its popularity. Funnily enough, once in and walking around the park, although obviously not alone, one didn’t feel crowded in the masses.

Throughout the park is tables and benches for picnic’s, and plenty of great shaded trees to escape the sun.

I went along with the Olympus E-500 DSLR today and captured a range of shots. I’ll show the flowers in another post, but below is a few more samples of the park.

Last Friday I visited the Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens with work. About 40min north of Auckland in the Car, the gardens are a nice little stroll and visit for people into various forms of sculptural art work. Like photography, there are genres that one likes and dislikes. Some sculpture and art goes right over my head, and other pieces draw me in. For me, it was about a 50/50 around the walk. As well as sculpture, the gardens are well maintained, and this time of the year covered on wonderful blossoming fruit trees.

‘Dove’ is one of the art works I liked. Created by Jin Ling , the female form holding a dove is all about Ling’s desire and hope for a peaceful existence.

Taken on the Fuji J15fd, I cropped, pushed up sharpening and lowered contrast – all in Gimp.

Tag: Gardens

Auckland Botanic Gardens (part1)

Dove