Garden Glow at the Shaw Home

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Henry Shaw inhabited the west wing of this house, which boasts ceilings over 12 feet high downstairs and over 15 feet high upstairs. Authentic deep moldings and ornate woodwork are unique to the original structure. The east side was the servants’ wing in Shaw’s time. The house has undergone many changes over the years. In 1890, the east side was completely rebuilt, and running water and gas service were added. Electricity was added in 1912 and a stucco exterior was applied in 1918.

After 100 years of use as a private home, school, dormitory, and office building, the house underwent meticulous renovation. Furniture and materials once belonging to Shaw were located and returned. It opened to the public in 1953. Tower Grove House was rededicated on October 29, 2005 after another period of extensive restoration. The house has been restored to reflect Shaw’s original country home. Many of the 19th century furnishings belonged to Shaw; others are of the same era.

See more Christmas photos and more form the Missouri Botanical Garden: https://greatrivers.smugmug.com/Galleries/Missouri-Botanical-Garden/i-GrL5ZPS

Christmas in the Governor’s home

Missouri Governor’s Mansion ready for Christmas. The Mansion has a two story Christmas tree in the stairway and trees in every room. However this little side-room has two trees and other decorations making it the place to be on Christmas morning.

I was lucky enough to receive a Christmas invitation to visit with the Governor but spent most my time there walking around the historic mansion, learning about the history and finding something fun to photograph.

Christmas Scene

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This is one of my favorite Christmas Photos. However I would not have found it if I did not follow one of the most important photography tips I have heard. That is, once you have found a good subject, take some time to study it and walk around it to find the best angle for a photo. The subject here was really a Gatekeeper’s House on the grounds of the Missouri Botanical Garden (see previous post). The house was nicely decorated for their Garden Glow event and when I walked around to the side of the house and looked into a doorway, I found this scene! To get this photo, I used a tripod set to a lower height and captured it as three shot HDR to make sure there were no shadows in the room. Everything processed in Lightroom and Photomatix.

Botanical Garden Gatehouse

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The holiday season offers a lot of opportunities for interesting photos. This is the old gatehouse at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Every year they create their “Garden Glow” where part of the property is highly decorated with lights and displays. It is a great place to photograph but do not take a tripod! To photograph Christmas lights at night, you will need a good camera and a tripod. Unfortunately many displays are drive-thru so you cannot get out of your car and displays like this are full of people so tripods are not allowed. Be sure to check the venue’s website to see if they have a Photographer’s Night or a special group that allows special equipment. The Missouri Botanical Garden has several of these nights during their Garden Glow. During these events, there are fewer people so there are more photo opportunities and the ability to spend time to explore angles, usually not available, helps find better shots .

The Discussion

Herbst Farm Farm

Watching these hounds hunt is fascinating. Bassets are pack animals and work together to track their prey. When one finds a scent and heads into the brush, the others spread out knowing the target will run. The secondary hounds try to judge the direction of the prey and attempt to cut it off. During all of this all you can see the white tips of each tail and the the sound of each hounds “voice” as they communicate with each other.

It is the horseman’s task to keep the hounds from wandering too far away.

Christmas time at Kirkwood Station

The Kirkwood station is a busy place with families traveling to meet with friends and family for the holidays.

This photo was something of a surprise. When this was taken, the sun was down and it was dark outside. Three exposures were taken, one under exposed, one over exposed and one at standard exposure. These were combined with this result. For more information on this technique, see my HDR Tutorial.