International Peace Gardens

The International Peace Gardens straddle the border between the United States and Canada between North Dakota and Manitoba.

 It was dedicated in 1932: TO GOD IN HIS GLORY, we two nations dedicate this garden and pledge ourselves that as long as men shall live, we will not take up arms against one another.

The Civilian Conservation Corps did most of the early construction.

There are 2300 acres to explore. We started our exploration on the Canadian side which is forested with water features and more natural in nature, taking the loop twice during our visit. In some ways I preferred the wild areas with the trees and birds.  However, the formal gardens are beautiful and I enjoyed walking around to see everything.

We saw an immature northern flicker as well as adult northern flickers.  We tried to stop for every bird and I enjoyed seeing birds near our picnic table at lunchtime.

Around the formal garden ponds there were many Northern Leopard Frogs.

The Interpretive Center and Conservatory had a good gift shop, restaurant as well as cactus and succulents from around the world.

The formal gardens were a delight to explore.   I talked to someone who visits every year. He told me the plantings are unique every year. He also told me that the Peace Towers in the background of the first photo have deteriorated and will be removed at some point.

I could not leave without stopping to photograph the floral clock. We spent half our day here and considered it well spent.

Macro Photography Workshop

My first workshop was with Nancy Rotenberg . I chose this workshop because I am fascinated with flowers and flower photography and I really wanted to improve my skills. This workshop provided all of that and more. Just walking into the room the first time was a delight. I had mentioned to Henry that if I was doing this workshop, I would have all sorts of flowers to work with. At the entrance to the room was a series of tables, all with something interesting and beautiful to photograph. She had background choices, flower choices, lighting, frosted and sculpted glass, water drop setups, all beautifully arranged. When she began, I was struck by her affirmation for each of us - her "can do" attitude. Of course, she also greeted each one of us warmly before the session even started. I have noticed among the photographers their worldview tends to be infinite rather than finite. There is room for each of us to be the individuals that we are. She stressed that each of us has an artist and poet within. I loved the book she chose: The Dot by Peter Reynolds. This book will be on my Christmas and birthday list for some of my friends (even though it IS a children's book.)


I really enjoyed the opportunity to try out different techniques that I had read and heard about, but that I had not constructed the setups for. We had all afternoon to play. She and her 3 assistants went around helping us without getting in our way.






As far as equipment ideas:






The flashlights that had different colored lights were really fun to play with - I've found a likely candidate at REI.









I want to get the Canon 500D - a closeup lens to fit over my 180mm macro for even closer shots.



The Plamp I've signed up in the silent auction for one of these.

All sorts of frosted and cut glass - I'll see if Henry can help me make stands for these.

Wimberly's Flash brackets - Macro Bracket-to adjust the angle for my flash (although I wasn't pleased with my use of flash at the workshop.)