We were in Indiana for Easter 2008 and we had some time to kill on the Saturday before, so Mom suggested we take a trip to the Botanical Gardens (this has become a thing for us if you recall our Longwood Gardens trip last year). I took a school field trip to the FWBG a long, long time ago (and even mentioned it in a rap song I wrote in 1994!) so I barely remembered being there. It was neat, provided lots of photographic opportunity, and was practically deserted due to winter weather (super cold & wet snow). Enjoy.
This was in the lobby! The entrance was like a mini-greenhouse itself, and they'd just finished watering the area, so I got some great droplet action. Sweet color, too. I must have taken 15 pictures of this flower for this one shot. We were waiting on my dad, who was meeting us there direct from work.
Just inside the building is this big, creepy-looking tree dude. And the damn thing talked! Tristan dug it. I just had to get a photo - he looks half-baked to me.
Right inside the first big greenhouse there is a little playground, so Tristan made a bee-line right for it. Nice pose, kid! He almost seems to fit right in the line of tulips behind him. He might need longer shirts, though.
Doesn't matter how long the shirt is when he flashes the camera without any provocation. He doesn't regularly do this kind of thing.
Brilliant color on this big-ass floppy flower, though the petals look like they're super wilted to me. Great pistil/stamens, though!
Of course, the focus in this picture is SUPPOSED to be reversed, so that the petals are out of focus and you see the detail in the middle parts, but I kind of dig the psychadelica of the opposite.
The patented Tristan Fake Smile. Still cute, though.
Just as cute from the side angle. Even cuter with his mom in the frame.
Grandma makes a cameo! Chillin' with Tristan in front of the big fake flowers. I like the dichotomy.
Another poorly focused close-up (it's hard to tell on the mini-screen on the back of the camera), but you get lots of pollen grain action!
Ahh, tulips. I should have cropped out the thing at the end of the path. What the hell is that, an elephant? I like the simplicity and bright colors of tulips, and these are especially nice. Warm tones.
Kind of an ugly flower, to me, but more dusty pollen action!
Very similar, but kind of an odd inner-circle. Again, not my favorite, but not a bad photo.
Yet even MORE pollen for that ass!
Now that's freakin' pink.
Just a normal plant, not a flower, but I liked how it radiated from the middle on out. Nice purply accents... what is that, kale?
They had this little steel chain curtain, so I went in ahead of our group and took a picture of Tristan walking through it. Not quite the artistic photographic entrance I was hoping for, but the smile on his face is worth it.
Another non-flower plant, and I really like the warm tones of this one for some reason. Pretty simple, but I like how it fills the frame.
This was a really freaky looking, bright red flower with a wicked pistil & stamen. It looked like something medieval. It was a bit over my head so I had some trouble getting a really good, straight-on shot. Here is it from the back.
And here is the front, close up. I really like this shot.
Tristan was pretty patient but here he was starting to get a little tired. The fake smile is drooping a bit.
Cool blue tones on these cute little buggers, which I had to get low down and dirty to shoot!
Another frame-filler, nice color, but again - out of focus, unintentionally.
Tristan perked up a bit when we hit another little playground area...
but he sat down and waited for us to be finished and let us know how tired he really was. When he gets pooped out, he plays with his hair. It's a nice indicator because when you ask him, of course he's NEVER TIRED. Here's a series I was lucky to get: I call it "tired, huh?, tired".
Then we all went home and took a nap.
