Fresh Start Photography Group

Hone your night photography skills at Lewis Ginter Gardens while you listen to live music! Explore the gardens at your leisure, photographing seasonal flowers and insects, orchids inside the Conservatory, and landscapes.

You can find the Flowers After 5 lineup, along with other information here: https://www.lewisginter.org/visit/events/flowers-after-5/.

Our mission: To create stunning well-lit flowers and/or insects and garden landscapes (think pathways with trees lit in specific places to accentuate your focus, or an illuminated colorful flower with a pond or dark greenery in the background). Night photography allows you to decide what is visible and what remains hidden. Light painting can transform your images into a dramatic photo, or a whimsical fairy-like scene.

What you need to know before you go!
Since our goal is to photograph at night, you will need a flash and/or a static light like a Lume Cube. These will help you light up your subjects while keeping the rest of your scene mostly hidden. There are walkways with lights in the garden where you may not need any lighting. We can also set up some lights for a group landscape shot, depending upon the foot traffic (usually there aren't many people in the garden during a concert, especially after dark). The moon will be at 55%, so we may have more ambient light which can work to our advantage when doing landscape shots, assuming we have a clear night.

We will have a brief discussion before we photograph to review settings and how we shoot with a flash and/or static light. Please note that this is not a meetup to initially set up your flash! You should already have a working flash associated with your camera (and/or a working static light). If you're bringing a stand for your light, please ensure that you do not impede the garden walkways.

What to Bring:

• Mid Range Lens (like a 24mm-120mm) for landscape shots

This will give you more options when creating your scene.

• Macro Lens (for flowers and insects)
• Flash with a Diffuser (Diffusers offer a softer light than the flash itself. You can buy them on Amazon for less than $15) A medium size is usually all that's necessary to put over your flash/speedlight. If you don't have a flash, a static light can also do the trick. Static lights also have the benefit of adjustable Kelvin temperatures and brightness levels. They are usually less expensive than speedlights.
• Static Light Source, like a Lume Cube, and potentially a light stand (A Light stand is not required - you can sometimes handhold your light like you would a flash, or you can prop the light up using objects around you). We should have at least 2 light stands for group landscape shots.
• Tripod. If you want to create landscapes at night, you will need a tripod for longer exposures.

Schedule:

Let's meet just inside the gardens when you exit the main building after you purchase your tickets at 5:00pm. The sun sets at 6:13pm, so arriving early will allow us to talk about our settings and get in a little practice photographing with a flash/static light while we can still see what we're doing! If you are running late, just get your tickets and enter the gardens. You will probably find us nearby.

Remember that the pathways are narrow, and too many people can make it difficult for other visitors to maneuver around us.

When you are ready to leave, feel free leave the gardens, but please remember to share your pics on meetup! I'd love to see them!

FYI - You can return to your car and re-enter the gardens as needed. Food and drinks are available for purchase from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the concert site, under Bloemendaal House tent. You can also bring snacks, but only water is allowed inside the garden, so you will have to return to your car to eat.

Please note the butterfly area will be closed in 2025 - 2026 to build a future permanent butterfly enclosure.

Tripods are allowed as long as they do not block the walkways.

Admission prices vary, so please refer to the following link for details: http://www.lewisginter.org/visit/hours-admissions/.

To view a map of the gardens, click the following: http://www.lewisginter.org/visit/gardens/map/ .

Lewis Ginter has touchless refillable water stations for refillable water bottles. If you want to take advantage of this, don't forget your water bottle! All other food and drinks must be paid for inside the gardens.

Please let me know if you have any questions in the Comment section below, and hope to see you at the gardens!

Please read our disclaimer for this event in the link below. By sending an RSVP and joining this meetup event hosted by the Fresh Start photography Meetup, I agree to abide by the rules and regulations in this disclaimer:

Quarterly Critique:

This will be our formal critique. A facilitator will review each photo and offer comments and suggestions. Members will also have a chance to offer comments about each image. We will make adjustments to the critique format as necessary.

This will be a friendly and supportive critique. Please upload four photos to the photos section of this meeting at least seven days prior to the meeting. It's not mandatory that you upload photos, but it's strongly suggested.

Please follow the guidelines & instructions below for uploading photos: