Ringwood Botanical Garden

Any photographer will have more than enough on which to focus, whether it be the rich old-world interiors of the stately mansion built back in the 1920’s with local granite, the 96 acres of gardens which surround the estate or the 1000 acres of picturesque open space, set against the background of the majestic Ramapo Mountains.

Financier Clarence Mckenzie Lewis purchased the property from Francis Lynde Stetson and then leveled Stetson’s home, who had purchased the farmland decades earlier, during the Grover Cleveland Administration, as a setting suitable to entertain his law firm’s clientele including Andrew Carnegie of the Steel industry, J P Morgan and various railroad barons.

When Lewis went back to the drawing board with the home and grounds, he gathered plants, flowers, trees and statuary from around the world, with the goal of providing a rich variety of splendid gardens, a pond and an assortment of vistas.

Your Digital Photo Academy instructor will demonstrate and supervise camera and composition strategies to blend and contrast the myriad of colors, patterns, shapes and textures, beginning in the stately manor, then the grounds and from there the spectacular vistas.

The interior space of the home is a vehicle to capture rich woodwork flourishes bathed in natural window light and the exterior allows for creative expression of architecture from close up and far off distances, pasted against the sky or situated amongst trees, colorful and flowers which vary from season to season, always offering portfolio worthy images with which to capture. Your DPA Instructor is experienced with commissions from clients over the years and can share his/her expertise in options for interior spaces, still life photos and many approaches in capturing the landscapes of the intricate gardens, broad landscapes and waterscapes from Swan Pond as well.

There will be unending opportunities for macro photography as well from colorful flowers as well as crawling creatures on the ground and flying birds and butterflies.

You will work on shutter speed control to transform flowing waters into velvety smooth depictions reminiscent of impressionist paintings as well as stop-motion of a split second of the waters spraying from a fountain.