"I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green. "
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from and Old ManseThe latest World Wide Panorama event - Gardens - was held June 20 to 25, 2006, a period that covered the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and winter solstice south of the equator. Three hundred seventeen photographers from across the world participated in the event, which requires that panoramas be shot within the allotted timeframe.
click here to view site
Each of the entries is a culmination of time and effort as each WWP participant must consider the subject for their individual selection and how it fits into the theme, and then set about capturing and producing their pano within the alloted timeframe, all of which makes this event so unique. It is truly a group effort and worthy of viewing in its entirety. I merely serve up this offering as a tasty hors d'oeuvre to whet your appetite for the main course.
The entrees below are by some of the long-time participants, one of whom pointed out that if each submission took just one hour to create from shoot to upload (a highly understated time), it amounts to 12 days, 13 hours of work, 24 hours a day.
A commendable feat. Bon appétit!
(One regular participant, WWP event founder and co-ordinator Don Bain, was felled by illness and his Garden submission, at the time of writing, was not yet available.
As usual, Bain has an excellent and entertaining tale for his tardiness, which begins with a sore throat followed by a trip to emergency, moves on to his consumption of Vicodin and morphine, nasty endoscopes snaked up his nostrils, and a final diagnosis of Ludwig’s Angina (yeah, sure Don).
Should anyone doubt his tale, Landis Bennett provides (what else!) a panorama to verify Don’s claims: http://homepage.mac.com/landis/WWP/DonHospital.mov)
Luis Benitez, Cosmovitral Jardín Botánico / Botanical Garden
Toluca, Estado de México, México
This botanical garden, with more than 400 species of plants from all over the world, boasts a stained-glass ceiling by Leopoldo Flores that is thought to be the largest in the world. Benitez reports that the 3200 square meter window is composed of over 30,000 segments and half a million crystals of 28 different colors.
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Robert Bilsland, The Red Borders, Hidcote Manor Garden
Near Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England, UK
Indeed, the English are spoilt for choice when it comes to gardens. A lush green lawn and vibrant red flowers make this pano a great choice for traditionalists. Bilsland chose the National Trust property Hidcote Manor Garden for this assignment, lured by the description of "a series of outdoor rooms each with its own unique character”.
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Yasuhiro Fujimoto, Sekizoji-Temple
Tanba City, Hyogo, Japan
This rock garden was designed by Mirei Shigemori for the Sekizoji-Temple 1971 and is highly regarded in Japanese garden history. Fujimoto writes that “this garden is known as a garden of "shishinsouou" and is divided in the each direction and is showing Seiryuu(dragon) -EAST, Suzaku(phoenix) -SOUTH, Byakko(tiger) -WEST and Genbu(turtle) -NORTH.”
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Antonio Victor Garcia-Serrano, Palmera Imperial - The Imperial Palm Tree
Elche (Alicante), Spain
“This pano shows a zone of the Huerto del Cura (Priest’s Grove) garden and its own and worldwide unique specimen of an eight arm palm tree,” Garcia-Serrano writes. This pano shows the 175 year-old Phoenix dactylifera palm tree, a unique specimen among its type; there are seven palm “children” that grow out of its trunk to form an eight arm tree.
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Sacha Griffin, Steve Mollenkof's Garden
Cumming, Georgia, USA
“While most of us work away somewhere in cubicals or small offices usually without windows, Steve Mollenkof works every day tending to his garden under the blue sky and selling vegetables and herbs to passersby. After trying his fresh vegetables I quickly realized vegetables picked green and shipped hundreds of miles to your large commercial grocery don't compare to the vegetables picked ripe from the garden.
”So get out in the sun, learn the art of cooking, use fresh herbs and support your local gardener!”
Features audio describing the (extensive) list of vegetables grown.
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Mark Houston, Water Garden, Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory
Belle Isle, Detroit, Michigan, USA
A quiet oasis to rest and relax in Detroit, the conservatory is dedicated to Mrs. Whitcomb, who left her 600 plant orchid collection to Detroit in 1953.
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Juhani Laiho, The Winter Garden
Helsinki, Finland
This Winter Garden in Helsinki was built by General-Major Jakob Julius of Lindfors, and designed by architect Karl Gustaf Nyström; it was opened to the public in 1893. The garden is houses over 200 different plants and consists of three rooms.
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Roberto Mancuso, Childhood Garden (Pixie's Garden)
Ciniselllo Balsamo, Milano, Italy
A most unusual garden, composed of children, the flowers of our world.
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Lee Nelson, Japanese Tea Garden
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California, USA
The oldest public Japanese garden in the United States, the Japanese Tea Garden was developed for the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition. This panorama shows the wet walking garden.
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Peter Nyfeler, Our Garden from Above
Davos Dorf, Switzerland
This pano opens with an interesting perspective, shot from above and showing the square building complex where Nyfeler lives, with a 3rd floor garden in the center, hidden from prying eyes.
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Tom Striewisch, "Schrebergarten"
Essen, NRW, Germany
An allotment garden, or "Schrebergarten", is typical for private gardens in German cities since they were “invented” in Leipzig in the middle of the 19th century.
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Jan van der Woning, Flower Garden in the Veluwe of Mr. Mulder
Elspeet, Overijssel, Netherlands
A truly stunning garden, deserving of winning first place in the local garden competition.
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Uri Cogan, Butchart Gardens
Vancouver Island near Victoria, BC, Canada
Designated in 2004 as a National Historic Site of Canada, Butchart Gardens are seemingly otherwordly in their perfection and neatness, and particularly interesting as they were created out of an old quarry site.
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The World Wide Panorama began in March 2004 and has become an ongoing series of events. Photography takes place on the solstices (longest and shortest days of the year) and equinoxes (day and night of equal length). Photographers all over the world are welcome to participate.
The next event is 20-24 September with the theme 'Transportation'.
