Container Garden Idea Book Released

The Container Garden Idea Book is now in stock and available for purchase through Taunton Books and Amazon.com. I served as the editor and a major contributing photographer of this book, which is from the staff and contributors of Fine Gardening magazine.

Publisher's description: "Containers are wonderful accents anywhere in the landscape. For those with small spaces or beginner skills, they offer an easy and affordable way to add stylish touches to their surroundings. Every gardener will find unique inspiration in Container Gardening Idea Book. Part of Taunton’s best-selling Idea Book series, it’s an amazing visual clip file with over 300 photos, plant recipes, and eye-catching designs for container gardens of all shapes and sizes. It will inspire gardeners to experiment with new plants, from flowers to vegetables and herbs; with color and texture combinations; and with pot shapes and materials. Readers can’t go wrong with this fresh content from the editors and contributors of Fine Gardening on how best to display containers throughout the landscape, change them up every season, and so much more."

Product Details: Paperback, 224 pp, 325 photos, 80 drawings, $19.95 list price, ISBN 978-1-60085-395-1

Maine Garden Photography Workshop

Join me in Maine next summer to photograph some of the mid-coast's most beautiful public and private gardens. This weeklong workshop will be held June 17-23 at the Maine Media Workshops in picturesque Rockport harbor.

We'll spend our mornings and evenings amid quaint cottage gardens, lush perennial borders, fragrant herb gardens, expansive botanical gardens and lupine-filled meadows. Mid-day, we'll review images and discuss a range of topics--both technical and creative in nature. We'll also spend a day playing in the studio, looking at flowers in unexpected ways. In the evening, enjoy presentations by some of the most notable working photographers in the country today. Even the food (which is eaten outdoors beneath a big white tent) is great. It's a wonderful week for expanding your photographic skills, exploring some amazing gardens, and enjoying the company of others who share your passions.

The dates have just been confirmed, and the workshop descriptions/registration information should be posted soon. If you'd like to be notified when the online catalog is posted or would like to receive a copy of the printed catalog, just drop me a line with your contact info.

I can't say enough good things about the Maine Media Workshops. They've been a leader in photography, film and muliti-media education more than 30 years. I started by taking workshops there many years ago, and have enjoyed leading many workshops over the past ten years. It would be great to have you join us in June!

A Chilly Day at Fort Clinch

Fort Clinch served as a military outpost during the Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War II. Although it was never fully completed and was never engaged in battle, this masonry fort was built at the mouth of the St. Mary’s River to protect the deep-water port of Fernandina. And it is precisely because it never saw action that it remains one of the best preserved of the Third System Fortifications constructed between 1816 and 1867.

My interest in Fort Clinch is not so much military as architectural. The bricks used for its construction vary by time period, but most were handmade and came from nearby St. Mary’s Island. If you look closely, you can find brick makers’ fingerprints along the walls. The arched ceilings in the five bastions and the long tunnels that lead to them are works of art and feats of engineering, designed to support troops and heavy canons overhead. The natural light that flows into the fort and its freestanding buildings is soft and magical, highlighting the texture of the bricks and showing their wear.

I have photographed Fort Clinch on several occasions. Each time, the light is different and I make new discoveries. Yesterday was the first time I walked all the way around the exterior of the fort. It was cold, windy and spitting rain on the northernmost tip of Amelia Island, but I enjoyed bundling up, braving the wind, traipsing alongside the live oaks and skirting the shoreline.

These are quick-and-dirty images processed on my laptop. I look forward to giving them fair treatment on my “big” computer back at the office when I return home and adding them to my collection of other images. But when I’m on the road alone, I enjoy sharing a few of my experiences along the way. It gives me a sense of connection to family and friends. So I hope you’ll enjoy—even if the images are still a little rough around the edges.

 All photos ©2011 Lee Anne White. All rights reserved.

Brenau University Video Showcases Galleries and Art Program

The following video was prepared for graduation weekend at Brenau University. It gives a nice overview of the University's Permanent Collection and galleries, and highlights a number of their visiting artists...yes, including me. Take a peek.

Conversations with Creative College Women

I had the pleasure of interviewing 36 college women last spring about their views on creativity. Each also allowed me to photograph her expressing her sense of creativity in some way. Some brought symbolic objects or items they had made. A few launched into performances. And others expressed their creativity in more personal ways. Some of the images are featured in this short digital story.

Conversations with Creative Women from Lee Anne White on Vimeo.

Island Solitude: Two Personal Projects Revealed

I am a firm believer in personal photographic projects (or personal creative projects of any kind, for that matter). I believe they keep you fresh and challenged, and allow you to explore new subjects or techniques in depth. They are also among the best ways I know to "get out of a rut." Here's the story of one of my personal projects that led almost seamlessly to a second, and how that connection was made.

Island Solitude from Lee Anne White on Vimeo.

The Garden in Black & White

People sometimes look at me funny when I talk about photographing the garden in black and white. It's the same expression they give me when I tell them I have a foliage garden with very few flowers. I suppose that's because so many love the garden foremost for the flowers and the color. I love many gardens for that, too, but I find them equally compelling for other reasons--the structure, the form, the textural contrasts, the use of space and materials, the mood created, and how the garden relates to architectural elements and the surrounding landscape.

When do I shoot black & white? I've found that a range of subjects work--overviews, vignettes, plant portraits, tight details. But some of the things that tend to set them off include strong lighting contrast, strong color-brightness contrast, bold textural contrasts, and low color contrast (particularly monochromatic scenes). Here are a few examples I took while teaching a workshop in Maine.

Lilies.

Vesper Hill Children's Garden, Rockport, Maine.

Kousa dogwood at Vesper Hill Children's Garden.

Vesper Hill Children's Garden.

Tom Wolf garden, Rockport, Maine.

Backyard pond with cattails. Camden, Maine.

Cattails in pond.

Dahlia.

Photos ©2010 Lee Anne White. All rights reserved.

Photo Project Highlighted by Professor at Toronto Conference

Dr. Susan Keller-Mathers, assistant professor of creative studies at SUNY/Buffalo State College, was the closing plenary speaker for the Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) Conference at Ryerson University in Toronto this past June. Her topic was "Building Passion and Potential for Creative Learning and Teaching." About mid-way through her talk (move the slider bar to 37:00 and press play), she highlighted my photographic and research project on college women and creativity. It's also a great talk if you're interested in learning more about creativity from an educational perspective. And I especially enjoyed how she described her own view of creativity:

"You will find your creative path when you are in rhythm with nature and expressing your authentic self."

Rio Grande Gorge

Traveling across the flat, arid land northeast of Taos, gazing at the mountain ranges beyond, you unexpectedly stumble across a large bridge. Plummeting nearly 800 feet below is the Rio Grande Gorge. It was discovered in 1519 by Spanish conquestadors. Can you imagine their surprise?

Photos ©2010 Lee Anne White. All rights reserved.

Taos Pueblo

Taos has long been a destination for artists, but it has been the home of Taos Pueblo for much longer. Some of the Pueblo buildings currently standing on the site are believed to have been constructed between 1000 and 1450 AD. Ancestors of these people inhabited the area long before then. Approximately 150 people still live at the Pueblo, with another 1900 living on surrounding Pueblo land.

All photos ©2010 Lee Anne White. Images may not be reproduced.