Macrophotography & The Greenway: A Close-Up Look!

Written by The Greenway Volunteer Tsai-Lun (Helen) Chung with Horticulturist Darrah Cole

Over the years, we’ve seen a number of beautiful pictures of The Greenway – especially our all-organic horticulture – but we’ve seldom seen pictures taken by children. However, we were recently approached by Tim Porter about donating sample plant materials from The Greenway for a workshop he organizes and teaches at the Boston Children’s Museum called “Macrophotography Program- A Closer Look at the Greenway.” We were delighted to participate!

The Macrophotography program was held on Saturday, July 11 at Boston Children’s Museum and is due to return this Saturday, August 1. Children were invited to create their own beautiful close-up photographs of natural objects. They explored a sampling of the amazing flowers and plants that populate The Greenway’s gardens this season.

The plant materials donated by The Greenway staff include Echinecea ‘Magnus’ (Coneflower) and Eryngiun planum ‘Blaukappe’ (Seaholly) blooming in the Fort Point Channel Parks through the summer. The group also worked with pine cones, small seed heads and drying allium flowers.

These are the pictures taken by the children themselves.

Purple Coneflower

Purple Coneflower

Purple Coneflower

’Pomegranite’ Yarrow

Ornamental Onion seeds

Green Seeds

Juvenile cone from Tanyosho Pine

Rose blossom

Sea Holly stem and leaf

Sea Holly thistle (Eryngium planum)

In the process of experimenting with photographic techniques like composition, framing, lighting, background and focus, then zoom in and snap the photograph, children get a closer experience of these natural wonders planted and maintained by The Greenway’s horticulturists.

The children get a chance to understand different kinds of plant, to touch the texture of them, and to observe the changes under light and shadow through the various placements of the natural objects. The Greenway is glad to know that the plants in our parks brought such a great experience to the workshop participants.

“It is so cool to see these flowers through the close up eyes of children, finding the unexpected in the plants I work with every day is exciting.” D.C.   

We are thrilled to partner with and support our neighboring institutions – including Boston Children’s Museum. The Greenway hopes their macrophotography experience inspires the children and their families to visit The Greenway to continue exploring and learning more about our wonderful flowers and horticulture in this awesome summer under sunshine.

The next Macrophotography Workshop will be held this Saturday August 1, 2015, from 11am to 1pm.