JoAnn, I would try taking the picture very early in the mornings, while everything looks fresh and nice. You could try different shots, at intervals, in order to save your best one and figure out the best time to do so for future picture taking. That way, you could just back off a bit in order to get the whole garden. It's the FIRST thing I would try and it would cost nothing to do. I like the cost of nothing. Always have! *smile* Anytime I take pics of my plants and gardens, I always do it in the very early morning to get the natural light. Seems if I take the pics in the evenings the plants always look a little stressed from the day's heat. I also like mornings because if I take close-up pics I often get the dew drops which adds to picture effects.

If you try to get the picture at night it may take special lighting if you don't have a yard light. I am going to install a yard light over mine, this year, so I can enjoy it more. I think it will be a sodium light.

Well, this is only MY opinion, but you did throw the question out there for discussion, right?

David

Your photo is gorgeous so is your garden!

I think david_oklahoma is good with his advice. Em... come to think of it, the folks at Photo Gallery sure post a lot of awesome photos.
If you wish to; you might post a message over there for a few finer tips or twigging ideas.

My old camera is kind of heavy for me to handle and my hubby bought me a nice digital one not too long ago as an advance mothers day
present. I drooped the thing, it landed hard on a short block wall, the second day I had it go figure! I am out of commission a while lol.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Garden Photo Gallery

Funny you mention dropping your new digital camera...my son did the same thing, didn't even get to use it once. I guess there are downsides to digitals, although I wouldn't make a habit of dropping my 'film' camera too much either. Sorry to hear about your loss, hope you get to replace it soon.

Thank you for the advice on taking photos Dave... I hadn't ever tried early morning photo taking. I may give that a try. Sometimes I am up and look at the garden just before sun up, but I don't ever take out my camera. I will have to try that. I did try backing up on my own, but I have to tell you, the flash doesn't go that far, and natural light requires a more steady hand..so I may just have to stop being lazy and get out the tripod. I do like just walking around aiming and clicking..I am too spoiled, ha ha ha. Thanks for the advice. I am sure the photo gallery is a great place to get informations..sometimes I just think of my white garden here and not on the other forums. Many of the plants are perennials, yet I hardly ever post there.

Thanks again.. I am looking forward to the next 'wave' of white. The spring bulbs are starting to fade, although some of the late tulips are still going strong. Looking forward to seeing your gardens...JoAnn

My hubby felt adventurous last evening and took out our good old camera and took a few shots.

Moon
Stephanotis
Jasmine sambac
Bougainvillea
Gardenia

I hope some day my garden will be as beautiful as yours.

{{gwi:8337}}

I think your picture came out fine, and your garden looks lovely! I'm just beginning my attempt at a moon/evening garden and I hope you all plant more pictures. Ankaras, your pictures are lovely too! Since you live in a similar climate perhaps you could tell me the best place to plant a stephanotis. I have one on a trellis under the eaves which gets northeast light up until about 11am. It looks healthy and it flowers, but not profusely. Mine also doesn't have much scent :( Am I doing something wrong?? I would greatly appreciate any advice anyone might have.

Hi dulcie2003 ;- Thanks a ton for your kind words and taking the time to view the photos. I am thrilled.

It is a common complaint among some Stephanotis growers that the plant is lacking scent and does not
flower or as much as expected. So your not alone. ;-]

Would you please give me an idea how high the temp is during summer and how low does it get during the
winter? I assume that the plant is ground growing, how long has it been in the ground? Do you amend the
soil at all? How often do you fertilize, Type used?

Hi Ankraras,

I live inland, midway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs os it's semi desert. The hight summer temps are mostly upper 90's with short spells up to 107 or so. During the winter it gets down to the low 30's occasionally, and it seems the last few years that we've had many more nights dipping into the low 30's. The plant has been in the ground for about 10 years now and the soil was ammended when I planted it.

We have really hard clay soil and I ammend the soil with Bumper Crop by Master Nursery. It's full of bat guano, chicken manure, coffee grounds, worm castings, etc. and I use it when I plant anything. I mix it in half and half and it makes the soil "fluffy" and plants just take off. I've tried other soil ammendments in the past but since finding this stuff, I won't use anything else.

I don't fertilize nearly as often as I should and I've always just used whatever I happened to have on hand such as miracle grow or miracid. I've made a resolution to do better and after I posted on the 11th I fertilized with Osmocote slow release and my stephanotis has thanked me already and is covered in blooms already! It has to be because of the Osmocote because I haven't done anything different except that.

I still wish it had a stronger scent though...sigh.

Dear dulcie2003;-

Thank you for sharing your knowledge of growing with the rest of us Stephanotis lovers. Really sounds to me like
you have provided a perfect growing environment for Stephanotis.

Congratulations! I could never be happier than hearing that now the plant is blooming.

Concerning fragrance, I believe this is just another over rated type of thing that some people use to describe their pride
and happiness once the plant finally performs to meet with their expectations. For me, if my Stephanotis only sends out
a few clusters of blossoms, I can not detect the fragrance until I get up close and bury my nose into the blooms. That is
only early in the morning or late evening anyway.

There are times that all of my specimens abundantly bloom. Even then, I can only get a sniff of it's famed highly claimed
delightful scent from a distance during morning and evening hours.

Thank you, but if I did provide a perfect growing environment for the stephanotis, it was sheer dumb luck...lol I suppose your right about fragrance being over rated. If a plant is healthy and doing well that's the most important thing.

I guess I'm just a sucker for fragrance, I love to be outside, especially in the evening, and catch a waft of a lovely fragrance now and then, but there is something to be said for burying your nose in the blooms too. I was at the nursery the other day and buried my nose in the gardenia blooms...ahhh...heavenly.

May be a bit late, but I have a few suggestions for getting a good moon garden pic. The major thing you want for good photography is lighting, try to catch the season and time of night that the moon lights up your garden. Then to get a good night picture, you need a longer shutter speed. (you want the shutter to stay open longer so your camera will catch more light) you may have to play around with the speeds to get the right exposure. Try with anything slower than 1/60th of a second and go down from there. If you don't have a manual camera, some automatic cameras have a night setting to use. Then since your using a slow shutter speed you'll need something to set your camera on so your picture doesn't blur or have 'camera shake'. You can try a tripod, or even setting in on a table and using a remote. Or if you don't have a remote, keep your hand as steady as possible, then press the shutter and hold it down until the exposure is done. Even lifting your finger from the shutter can shake the camera. Hope this helps