This past fall I took a day trip to visit the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, Illinois. The gardens are an amazing place to take photos and you could spend all day there without taking every possible shot. There are plenty of opportunities for great landscapes, hdr, infrared, and macro, just to name a few techniques. There are also plenty of waterfalls and running water pieces so you can practice taking long exposures to capture motion in water. I wasn’t able to arrive early enough or stay late enough at the gardens (because of the hours) to capture the golden hour for the best shots, and the day was a bit overcast, but the whole experience was enjoyable.
Here are a few of my favorite HDR photos of the Anderson Japanese Gardens. These images have not had any post-processing, so they are a bit rough. A run through of lightroom would help a lot, but I didn’t have it at my disposal at the time.
Taking photos of the Anderson Japanese Gardens made for a very relaxing afternoon and it was not overcrowded so you could get your shot without having to wait for a long line of people to get out of your way. I would highly recommend visiting the gardens, but give yourself at least a couple hours if you plan on taking photos.
Do you have any photos of the Anderson Japanese Gardens you’d like to share? Feel free over at the flickr group
All the pictures were taken with a Canon Rebel XTi with a Canon EFS 10-22mm wide angle lens.
