Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

April 21, 2013

It has been almost half a year since my last vacation so my "vacation bugs" started to bite me LOL!  I was looking for a short weekend trip; I just can't wait to go on vacation!  At first, I was thinking to go to Washington D.C. for its annual Cherry Blossom Festival in late March/early April. I saw many beautiful photos of cherry blossoms and I want to be there myself.  But my plan ruined since something urgent came back so I couldn't go :( Then I was searching around to see if there are any nearby flower festivals and I found the Cherry Blossom Festival at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York!  The festival is April 27-28 but I don't want to go during the festival because it will be so crowded and that other people's heads or arms will  appeared in my photos (you know what I mean!).  So we went during the weekend of April 21-22. It was at least a 4 hours drive but we stayed over the weekend so weren't too bad.

We visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Sunday, I wanted to go on Saturday but the weather wasn't good for photos.  The garden opens at 10 am during weekends, we got there right after it opened. There's a parking lot in front of the entrance to the garden, it's charged by hourly rate (I think it was somewhere around $8 for 3 hours so wasn't bad at all....remember it's New York)! We went to the entrance and bought our tickets $10 per person. We entered without a line but the place quickly filled up.  

At the entrance of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

First, we started with the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden where there were many cherry trees at their peak bloom! The cherry blooming map can be found at the garden's website: http://www.bbg.org/discover/cherries

The Japanese Garden's landscaping was beautiful, I almost felt that I am in Japan except I saw tall buildings on the background!

Doesn't this feels like Japan?

We made a whole loop around the pond and then walked up to the hill where there it was packed with people taking photos under the cherry trees! 

It was impossible to have a photo without someone else in my photo so I had to take more close ups.  I walked up to a branch of the tree and took some macros of the blossoms. The garden has many varieties of cherry so I took photos one tree by one tree, it was a lot of fun.  The hardest part when taking macro is motion; every shake from the wind will cause the photo to be blurry. Also I read somewhere that the pastel color of the blossoms will trick the camera's exposure so best to bump up the exposure.  I followed the advise and dialed up the exposure to a full stop, the photos came out exactly I was hoping for!

My favorite blossoms were the pink ones!

After the little "hill" we ended up at the Cherry Esplanade but the cherry trees were not bloom yet!!!! I imagined how beautiful this place will be when the cherry trees are in full bloom! Maybe one day I'll be able to be here at the peak bloom time!!

Two whole rows of cherry trees at the Cherry Esplanade:

Hubby was taking photo of me while I took a photo of him!

Next to the Cherry Esplanade is the Rose Garden but the roses were in bloom yet. We turned back and walked to the Magnolia Plaza, here many colorful flowers were in full bloom!

I love the combinations of bright colored petals and different shades of pastel petals!

We walked down to the Lily Pool Terrace where tulips were in full bloom! There were so many varieties of tulips that I never seen or heard of. I started from the front of the row and took photos of each variety to the back, I think it took me at least half an hour to get through all of them.  Plus it was so crowded with photographers like us LOL!  Sometimes we had to wait to have a space to squeeze in!  Here's a photo I took of my husband fighting for room with other photographers hahahaha:

Cameras pointing here and there but at least you won't feel like you are the only one making awkward position to take a photo!  I have to say I must take at least a hundred photos of the tulips!  Here are my favorite ones:

I love the arrangement of the tulips from light pink, to pink, then red, and bright red!

This picture made me want to visit Holland someday to its famous tulip festival!

My favorite color: purple and pink!

The Lily Pool was beautiful as well with the reflection of the building:

I love how this photo came out to be, only the tulip in the middle opened up!

It was my first time using our new 100mm macro lens, it really brings me another fun topic to explore!  This was my first time really look so close into a flower; it has a whole new layer of colors!

We left the garden at almost 1 pm!! Almost 3 hours there and it went by very fast (that's what happen when so many beautiful subject to take photos of)!  Our last look at the cherry blossoms as we walked pass by the Japanese Garden to exit:

Brooklyn Botanic Garden was the highlight of our weekend trip to New York! I am sure there are plenty to see and enjoy throughout the year in this garden!