Fall 2023 At Filoli
September 2023
We spend July and August on a remote lake in British Columbia, so it is always a treat to come back to Filoli in late-August or early-September and see how the gardens have changed. This year the Gentlemen’s Orchard (open for Orchard Days) was still full of fruit. Crazy. With the shorter days and light lower in the sky in the morning and late-afternoon, there is hardly a bad picture anywhere! The fabulous Kubrick sculpture exhibit will close in October, I believe–I’ve dedicated a separate page to this beautiful installation. One other thought: many of the images in the September gallery were shot with a very long, cinematic aspect ratio that I’ve enjoyed off and on for years since Hasselblad and Fuji introduced the XPan camera. Click on an image below to view a slideshow of September images.
October 2023
October arrived fast. But, the weather has continued to nurse the blooms along. Roses even. I’ve continued to experiment with the strong horizontal aspect ratio that is characteristic of the popular (and unique) Hasselblad XPan camera. It’s a hard aspect ratio to envision while composing, so it’s nice that my cameras provide a mask. Just a little crutch that I am happy for. Click on an image below to view a slideshow of October images.
November 2023
November begins with the lighting team well into stringing tens of thousands of lights and so my shot opportunities are limited a bit until I go all-in shooting the holiday lights. None-the-less this November began by offering up the wonderfully intense colors of fall (just a bit later than last year). Morning light combined with the vibrant yellows, oranges, and reds offer such beautiful saturation. Click on an image below to view a slideshow of November images.
About this project: 45 Minutes At Filoli
This project originated because my wife and I were looking for a pandemic-friendly afternoon outdoors and we visited Filoli in Woodside, CA. Spring had just begun to coax the blossoms and blooms along and I thought it might be fun to revisit the gardens every week and create a pictorial record of the changes. I decided on two guidelines. First, get in and out in 45 minutes to an hour. Second, go ultra-light by picking a lens from my old lens collection and sticking with that throughout my visit. Mostly, sometimes, I was able to stick with these guidelines. While my visits often stretched longer, trying to keep things simple and work fast gave the project an energy I enjoyed.