What I Saw at the "New York Botanical Garden"

These photos are a mixed variety of those I took using my old Olympus digital camera and my Sony Ericsson celfone camera. You'd see the yawning differences in quality (color, light, ambient features), but I still feel confident on the composition of the images I have chosen and posted here, and to convey the great images one can behold, and very much worthy of sharing to others who have yet to be at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Having not much memory space in my camera, I settled with what I could just shoot and capture. My friend just went on shooting photos of what has caught her eye on what's beautiful, which quality abounds in this garden. As to the photos here, I'm proud to have captured what's basically, and naturally beautiful, without going out of my way to improve, repair, or change anything on the outcomes. It was sweltering hot when my friend and I visited the park over a week ago. I felt like I was back in the Philippines, but I try to tell myself, summers here in NYC are even actually worst than the year-long tropical climate (i.e. hot, humid, except or even worst when it rains) back in my country of origin. Sun glare may be noted on the photos using my celfone camera, but these shots are taken under authentic light, which casts more of lush and rich quality when viewed by the camera. There's simply no words to describe such lightness of feeling provided by the brightness of the sun in the garden that time, as I meditate on what I've seen during my visit.

I'm grateful for all those individuals, corporations and other groups who have endeavored to have a great garden as this one here in NYC. It takes so much hard work to come up with something as grand as this whole 250-acre site of a garden park. I've even started thinking of getting a membership to show my efforts to help, in my own little way. I can only shake my head on my imagination of images if these same spots taken in the photos will be made again come fall, winter and spring. Henry Moore's sculptures are all the more meaningful if taken with the various parts of the garden serving as main background. I start to think whether the sculpture themselves make the garden more luscious and stunning, or the other way around. I overheard some visitors getting ready to be "more personal" with one of Moore's sculptures, the one that has a hole in the middle. It's got such enigmatic presence where it's located, in a spot close to where visitors wait for the tram to arrive. It's purely a visual feast available to everyone who'd care about nature, completed by marvelous art pieces.

I noted and asked myself why entrance fees have to be offered into two choices: just a mere walk around the garden, or that option that will allow the visitor to get into the tram rides and entry into specialized horticultural/exhibit/library buildings. Tram rides will facilitate the tour, and make it make manageable to someone who'd be shying away for a visit to a great garden like this for some physical limitation. You don't even need to read all the notations all over the garden. It's the experience of getting connected to nature. I see that it's really very much sufficiently satisfying for a first-time visit just to walk around the garden. This is one of those places that calls for constant visits every chance one has got, as the gardens show different hues, colors every time. Being summer, the lilies, as mentioned in one of the gospels, reign supreme out there in the field.