I went to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania yesterday with a friend/client to see the annual display of Himalayan Blue Poppies. They only bloom for about 2 weeks and once word gets out it is usually swamped. This year with Covid the gardens did a great job reducing the number of visitors at one time with their timed tickets.
I was slightly disappointed as the Orchid room and attached green houses were closed for renovations as well as the gift shop. The main room in the conservatory was open but I felt slightly limited with my photo options. There were beautiful flowers on display as usual and there is always something special at Longwood.
There is now table seating (instead of the buffet line) with a limited menu. The mushroom soup was as good as I remember!
Longwood no longer allows tripod use in the Conservatory and they have very strict guidelines in place making photography almost a thing of the past at Longwood…
However, the blue poppies are always worth a visit in my opinion!
12-40mm Olympus lens @f/5.6
Voightlander @f/0.95
For all of the images above I used my Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera . I knew I would be handholding and light gear was the ticket. Plus Olympus has the 5 axis image stabilization and fully articulating screen that I love so much. I did find it hard to photograph with a mask on-I kept fogging up the viewfinder so all of these were created using the back screen and manual focus-as always.
I used two lenses while I was there - my go-to Olympus ED 12-40mm f/2.8 and the extreme shallow depth of field Voigtlander 42.5 Macro lens with an f/0.95.