The gardens of the Bay of Plenty will never look more photogenic than during the biennial Garden & Artfest early next month.
A new event on the festival programme invites keen photographers, especially those interested in photographing gardens and their environments, to join a professional photographer on an entertaining andinstructive tour of three especially selected gardens on Friday Nov 9. The daylong event may be new to the festival but its leader, Jo Miller, is not. Her garden orientated photography tutorials were a popular feature of the last festival's workshop series. Jo Miller runs Gate Photography which covers many local events and will be photographing festival highlights. Her teaching arm, Capture It NZ, has been responsible for up skilling and increasing the pleasure many recreational photographers derive from their hobby.
Three Photogenic Gardens
The day's outing and workshop will commence with a light morning tea and pre tour instruction at the Capture It lecture room in the Historic Village. From there participants will board a mini bus to the first garden, River Cottage, Ruve Stephen's garden just north of Katikati. This is an eclectic cottage garden with lots of colour, vintage elements and very photogenic character cottage and out buildings. After a couple of hours there (and any photographer knows how quickly two hours disappears while engrossed in getting those perfect shots) the tour will continue to the garden of John and Bridget Little. Littlefarm's grounds surround two architecturally interesting homes, one black, one white, and demonstrate form and structure in a series of garden rooms with a rural backdrop. Lunch will be served here.
Then the tour heads to the third garden where ancient native trees form an avenue into Woodlands, Sarndra Newman's Bethlehem garden. Photographers can capture native bush, palms and tropical plants in a micro climate, and also roses and specimen trees around an expansive lawn. The day culminates with wine tasting and nibbles at Mills Reef Winery. At $125 it's a fun and informative day designed for photographers of any skill level.
