A very brief visit to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

BBG’s Rock Garden this morning
Rock Garden

This morning I went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to attend the first 2009 meeting of the Brooklyn Community Gardeners Coalition. When I woke up this morning, it was 8F. It “warmed” up to 10F by the time I left the house. Wind chill was 0F. Hence the brevity of my visit.

I almost had the Garden to myself. Almost.
Tracks

I wanted to try out the panorama assist feature of my new Nikon CoolPix S60. That worked well, I think. The ArcSoft Panorama Maker 4 software bundled with the camera won’t start at all. I had to locate and run the separate registration software just to get the serial number so I could register for support. So far, no response from them. So no snowy panoramas of the Japanese Garden today. All these photos were shot with my trusty Nikon D70s.

Nevertheless, this was a photo opportunity. The subtle colors of winter were accentuated by the snow. We’re supposed to get more snow tomorrow and Monday, and warmer temperatures. The Garden is open on Monday holidays, such as Martin Luther King Day, and weekday admission is free through the end of February. It will be a good time to visit.

The Rock Garden has got some of the best “bones” of all the BBG gardens. I think it’s second only to the Japanese Garden in design.
Rock Garden

Hydrangea quercifolia, Oakleaf Hydrangea
Hydrangea quercifolia

The Witchhazels are almost, but not quite, ready to bloom. With warmer weather expected during the week, they should be beautiful next weekend.
Hamamelis

Japanese Garden

This was the highlight of my visit.

Bridge

Old Cherry

Trees on the Pond

Torii

Cherry Branches

Related Content

Flickr photo set
Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Links

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

“Ditmas Park” in LifeStyler: So Wrong …

North side of Dorchester Road between Rugby and Marlborough Roads, Ditmas Park West (not “Ditmas Park”)
North side of Dorchester Road between Rugby and Marlborough Roads, Ditmas Park West

In their Neighborhood Watch feature today, LifeStyler – “offering tips to young adults in order to promote financial responsibility and fiscally responsible lifestyle choices” – interviews neighbors Ben and Liena of the Ditmas Park Blog:

We turn our attentions to Ditmas Park, one of the three Flatbush historic districts that feature beautiful Victorian houses and a low-key, family-friendly vibe. We spoke with Ben and Liena of Ditmas Park Blog for their takes on one of Brooklyn’s best-kept secrets, and how it is also in a state of change.
– Neighborhood Watch: Ditmas Park, Jeffrey L. Wilson, LifeStyler, 2008-10-22

Are we really such a secret, anymore? Victorian Flatbush was featured in This Old House, for the gods’ sakes, over the summer as the best place in the U.S. to buy an old house in an urban area.

Since they make a point about “historic districts” – which, in NYC, means landmarked and protected by law – I have no qualms about being a stickler for geography. Presumably, the three historic districts they refer to are:

  • Ditmas Park
  • Prospect Park South
  • Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park, which is one district comprising two adjacent neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, LifeStyler chose to illustrate the interview with photos mostly from Ditmas Park West, which is lovely, but not landmarked, and is not part of Ditmas Park. They lifted all the photos from Flickr. They used three of my photos in violation of all three terms of my Creative Commons license:

  • non-commercial use (they have ads on their site)
  • non-derivative (they cropped the photos to fit their page layout)
  • attributed (they only provide my handle on two of the photos, and only one of them is linked to my Flickr site or blog)

Only one of my three photos is from Ditmas Park: a photo of a vegetable stand on Newkirk Avenue.

Kim’s Market, 1521 Newkirk Avenue, Ditmas Park, Flatbush, Brooklyn
Kim's Market, 1521 Newkirk Avenue, Ditmas Park, Flatbush, Brooklyn

I have no time to investigate, but I suspect the other photographers licenses were violated as well. For the record, they are:

I’m not providing any links to LifeStyler’s Web site. Why should I? They didn’t link to any of their folks whose creative content they ripped off.

Fall Foliage Photo Contest at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Cherry leaves falling at the entrance to the Viewing Pavilion, Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, November 2006.
Falling Leaves

Remember how I told you to keep an eye out for BBG.org 2.0? The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is sponsoring a Fall Foliage Photography Contest. The contest started this past Monday, October 13, and runs through November 30. (The photo above is not eligible because it wasn’t taken this season.)

Autumn is upon us, and the leaves are already starting to turn at BBG. Come document the change in foliage and then submit your photos to our Flickr Fall Foliage Contest!

The Rules

Photos must be of fall foliage, but you are not limited in format—close-ups, macros, wide-angle shots, landscape images—it’s all fair game! Photos must be taken at BBG this year, between Monday, October 13 and Sunday, November 30.

The Prizes

Each week the Garden’s web staff will select a favorite image from the group to feature on our homepage and award the photographer with 2 free passes to BBG. All submitted photographs will be featured in a slideshow on the site as well.

How Do I Enter?

It’s easy! Just add your photos to our Fall Foliage Flickr group and we’ll do the rest!

Fall Foliage Photo Contest, Brooklyn Botanic Garden

So get clicking!

Related Contents

BBG, November 5, 2005 (Flickr photo set)
Field Trip: Brooklyn Botanic Garden, November 4, 2006
BBG, November 4, 2006 (Flickr photo set)

Links

Fall Foliage Photo Contest, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Fall Foliage Contest at Brooklyn Botanic Garden (Flickr group)

Botanic Garden’s First-Ever Fall Foliage Photo Contest, Brooklyn Eagle, 2008-11-05

Last day to vote for the Mousies

Acer buergerianum, Bonsai, Root over rock style, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, November 2006
Acer buergerianum, Bonsai, Root over rock style, Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Voting for the 2008 Mouse & Trowel Awards, the “Mousies,” closes at midnight Eastern Time tomorrow, May 13th. Flatbush Gardener is a finalist in the category of “Best Photography in a Garden Blog.”

The photo above is one of six I submitted for inclusion in the video A Photoblog Tribute to Brooklyn which premiered at the Brooklyn Blogfest last Thursday evening. Four of the six are from gardens in Brooklyn.

Front Garden, 320 Stratford Road, Beverley Square West, Flatbush, Brooklyn, June 2007
Front Garden, 320 Stratford Road, Beverley Square West, Flatbush, Brooklyn

Hibiscus, Pier 44 Waterfront Garden, Red Hook, Brooklyn, July 2007
Hibiscus, Pier 44 Waterfront Garden, Red Hook, Brooklyn

Sanguinaria canadensis, Bloodroot, Native Flora Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, April 2007
Sanguinaria canadensis, Bloodroot, Native Flora Garden, BBG

Related Posts

You can see my photographs in posts labeled with Photos on this blog. You can also browse my Flickr Collections; most of my Flickr photographs are linked back to the posts in which they appear.

Links

VOTE NOW!, Mouse & Trowel Awards

Amy Stewart at the Horticultural Society of New York

Amy Stewart at HSNY

This evening I had the pleasure of attending Amy Stewart’s appearance at The Horticultural Society of New York. Amy was promoting the paperback edition of her bestseller, Flower Confidential, and provided a synopsis of the themes she covers in detail in her book.

I enjoyed her talk. She illustrated her stories with photographs from her research and travels for the book. The photo above illustrates Florigene’s attempts to genetically engineer a blue rose by combining Petunia genes with a Rose’s. Telling stories through pictures is something I strive to do here, however statically. Amy’s talk was a model for me.

Amy Stewart

Amy was also an animated speaker, so few of my photos successfully captured her spirited delivery. A couple of quotes:

  • “What would a blue rose mean?” We have cultural associations for Roses of other hue: white, red, yellow. Blog Widow suggests a blue rose should signify “disease,” ala The Glass Menagerie.
  • “You don’t see a lot of flowers in bloom” in greenhouses. Except for Gerberas, most flowers are cut, prepped and shipped while still in bud.
  • “We Americans know nothing about flowers.” (On national pride in flower-growing)
  • “There are good and bad farms everywhere.” (On making assumptions about floral industry practices based on the region of the world in which they’re located.)
  • “The focus is you.” (Advice to brides seeking her consult on where to obtain the “chocolate” rose.)
  • “Florists have to have a careful understanding of human nature.” Which leads us to the florist’s axiom:
  • “Use a different florist for a different woman.”

Amy also announced her next project: “Wicked” Plants – illegal, illicit, immoral, murderous, and so on. Sounds delightful! It reminded me of the wormwood, Artemisia vulgaris, I’ve been striving to eradicate from my gardens the past three years. It has been used as an arbortifacient in early pregnancy. I have thought of simply keeping some of it in a container, but it’s not the most attractive plant, and its flowers are visually insignificant.

Signing Table

It was also a pleasure for us to finally meet face to face, having known each other only through the gardening blogosphere up to now.

Cheers!

The Horticultural Society of New York

This was my first visit to the offices of The Horticultural Society of New York (HSNY). The building was midtown non-descript at street level.

148 West 37th Street, New York

But HSNY announces itself when the elevators open on the 13th floor. (It didn’t strike me until just now how unusual it was that the building even has a 13th floor.)

This must be the place

This simple arrangement of Spring flowering bulbs stood on the other side of those green doors.

Spring Bouquet

Daffodils
Daffodils

Fritillaria (pallidiflora?)
Fritillaria (pallidiflora?)

Their beautiful space is open to the public Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm. Their library is impressive.

Horticultural Society of New York

Links

Amy Stewart’s Web site
The Horticultural Society of New York

Thank You! Flatbush Gardener is a Finalist for the 2008 Mousies

Thanks to everyone who nominated blogs for the Second Annual Mouse & Trowel Awards, the “Mousies.” With your support, Flatbush Gardener is a finalist in the category of Best Photography in a Garden Blog. The other finalists in this category are David Perry Photographer and Digging.

You can vote for your favorite gardening blogs until May 13th at midnight Eastern Time. You can only vote for one of the finalists in each category. You can include a comment about your choice, as well. Winners will be announced on May 15th.

You can see my photographs in posts labeled with Photos on this blog. You can also browse my Flickr Collections; most of my Flickr photographs are linked back to the posts in which they appear.

Related Posts

Deadline, April 13: The 2008 Mouse & Trowel Awards
Flickr Collections: Brooklyn Botanic Garden, North Carolina Arboretum, Other Gardens, My Gardens

Links

Mouse & Trowel

Deadline, April 13: The 2008 Mouse & Trowel Awards

Berberis canadensis, American barberry, Bonsai at the North Carolina Arboretum.
Berberis canadensis, American barberry, Bonsai

I know that my photographs are the single most popular feature of this blog. My Flickr site gets even more traffic than this blog.

If you enjoy my photography here, or on Flickr, please consider nominating this blog for the “Best Photography” category of the 2008 Mouse & Trowel Awards:

The Mouse & Trowel Awards were created by freelance writer and garden blogger Colleen Vanderlinden to honor and reward excellence in online gardening. Awards for a variety of blog and website categories, as well as podcasting awards, are awarded every May after nomination and voting phases.

Quickly dubbed “the Mousies” by the garden blogging community, the Mouse & Trowel Awards earned a fair share of acclaim in 2007, with multiple write-ups in the Detroit Free Press, on several websites and blogs, and mentions on garden-related podcasts.
About the Mouse & Trowel Awards

Nominations are by the public: YOU. Nominations are open JUST THREE MORE DAYS, through April 13. You can nominate up to three sites for each category.

Here are all the categories:

  • Blogs:
    • Best Writing
    • Best Photography
    • Best Design
    • Most Innovative
    • Blogger You’d Most Like as a Neighbor
    • Best Gardening Podcast
    • Best North American Blog
    • Best International Blog
    • Best New Blog
    • Post of the Year
    • Garden Blog of the Year
  • Web Sites:
    • Best Forums
    • Gardening Web Site of the Year

Links

Nomination form, 2008 Mouse & Trowel Awards

Curation by Crowd

Via the Coney Island Flickr group, I just learned that the Brooklyn Museum of Art will be holding an open call for submissions during March for a photographic exhibit this summer:

Click! is an exhibition in three consecutive parts. It begins with an open call—artists are asked to electronically submit a work of photography that responds to the exhibition’s theme, “Changing Faces of Brooklyn,” along with an artist statement.
Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition

The open call runs from March 1 through 31, after which the submissions will be judged by the public:

After the conclusion of the open call, an online forum opens for audience evaluation of all submissions; as in other juried exhibitions, all works will be anonymous. As part of the evaluation, each visitor answers a series of questions about his/her knowledge of art and perceived expertise.

Open Call (March 1–March 31, 2008)
Evaluation (April 1–May 23, 2008)
Exhibition (June 27–August 10, 2008)

It’s an interesting project.

I definitely want to submit some of my photos. Taking “faces” literally, the theme is challenging to me. I don’t have many photos of people, though I have some in mind. One could also interpret “faces” to refer to the developing and decaying infrastructures of Brooklyn, from mega-projects to street corners. Other ideas?

Links

Brooklyn Museum of Art

Atlantic Yards Camera Club

Update 2008.02.12: Since the original post, I’ve added several more links to posts and photos from the other photographers who were present.


Photographers in a flurry
Photographers in a Flurry

Amid snow flurries and near-zero windchills, a stalwart group of about two dozen Brooklyn photographers, bloggers, citizen journalists, community activists, media and supporters gathered for a “photographers’ rights free expression mobilization.” We stood around in the freezing cold to talk and take pictures.
DSC_8189

DSC_8190

DSC_8191

Storm Approaching

Bloggerazzi (Dave Kenny)

DSC_8217

Party City

Fence as Art

Related Posts

My Flickr set

Links

Atlantic Yards (Flickr photo pool)
Brit in Brooklyn
Dope on the Slope
Fading Ad Blog
featherrock’s Picasa Web Album
No Land Grab
not another f*cking blog! (threecee)
Picture New York

Requesting photobloggers experiences with Schmap

Update 2007.12.10: I gave them permission to use the photo – a view of Governor’s Island from Red Hook – and they included it.


I got an email this evening notifying me that one of my Flickr photos has been short-listed for inclusion in a Schmap guide. I’ve never heard of them before this, and just want to know if anyone has any experiences with them as a content contributor. Please share publicly in the comments or email me privately at [xrisfg at gmail dot com].

Schmap is advertising-driven. My photos are licensed Creative Commons for Attributed, Non-Commercial, Non-Derivative works, so they’re asking me for my permission for them to use my photo:

While we offer no payment for publication, many photographers are pleased to submit their photos, as Schmap Guides give their work recognition and wide exposure, and are free of charge to readers. Photos are published at a maximum width of 150 pixels, are clearly attributed, and link to high-resolution originals at Flickr.

The creative commons license that you’ve assigned your photo(s) provides for non-commercial use. Our Schmap Guides, though free to readers, are ad supported: if you would like your short-listed photo(s) to continue to our … final selection phase, please therefore read our ‘Terms of Submission’ and press the ‘Submit’ button, no later than our editorial submission deadline – Sunday, December 2.

Here are their Terms of Submission to which they’re asking me to agree:

1. PHOTOS
The term “Photos” refers to one or more photographs and/or images licensed by You to Schmap pursuant to the Terms.

2. LICENSE GRANT
Subject to the terms and conditions herein, You hereby grant Schmap a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual license to include the Photos in the current and/or subsequent releases of Schmap’s destination/local guides.

3. FAIR USE RIGHTS
Nothing in these Terms is intended to reduce, limit, or restrict any rights arising from fair use, first sale or other limitations on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner under copyright law or other applicable laws.

4. LIMITATIONS
The license granted in Section 2 above is made subject to and limited by the following express limitations:

(a) Schmap may only distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, and/or publicly perform the Photos pursuant to the Terms.

(b) Schmap shall be required to keep intact all copyright notices for the Photos and provide, reasonable to the medium or means of utilization, the name of the original author (or pseudonym, if applicable) if supplied, for attribution in Licensor’s copyright notice, terms of service or by other reasonable means, and a credit (implemented in any reasonable manner) identifying the use of the Photos in any derivative Photos created by Schmap.

(c) Schmap shall, to the extent reasonably practicable, provide Internet link(s) to your Photos.

(d) Schmap shall not sublicense the Photos.

(e) Schmap shall indicate to the public that the Photos are licensable to others under the Creative Commons license that you have assigned to the Photos prior to Schmap’s initial short-listing of your Photos, and provide a link to this license, where reasonably practical.

(f) Schmap shall continue to make its destination/local guides available at no cost to end users.

5. RIGHTS
You confirm that You own or otherwise control all of the rights to the Photos and that use of the Photos by Schmap will not infringe or violate the rights of any third parties.

6. NO OBLIGATION
Schmap shall have no obligation whatsoever to reproduce, distribute, broadcast, or otherwise make use of the Photos licensed by You to Schmap hereunder.

7. NO AFFILIATION
While the Flickr website and/or Flickr API have been used to short-list your Photos, Schmap claims no affiliation or partnership with Flickr.

8. MISCELLANEOUS
[Lots of legalese …] If there is any dispute about or involving the Terms or the license granted hereunder, You agree that such dispute shall be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict-of-law provisions. You agree to personal jurisdiction by and venue in the state and federal courts of the State of California, City of San Francisco. The license granted in the Terms may not be modified without the mutual written agreement of You and Schmap.