Digital Photography Live In-the-Field @ Ringwood Botanical Garden (NJ)

Join our photo lessons at Ringwood Botanical Garden, which is one of the excellent locales in the rotation of many New Jersey venues that offer terrific photo opportunities.

Any photographer will have more than enough on which to focus, whether it be the rich old-world interiors of the stately mansion built back in the 1920’s with local granite, the 96 acres of gardens which surround the estate or the 1000 acres of picturesque open space, set against the background of the majestic Ramapo Mountains.

Financier Clarence Mckenzie Lewis purchased the property from Francis Lynde Stetson and then leveled Stetson’s home, who had purchased the farmland decades earlier, during the Grover Cleveland Administration, as a setting suitable to entertain his law firm’s clientele including Andrew Carnegie of the Steel industry, J P Morgan and various railroad barons.

When Lewis went back to the drawing board with the home and grounds, he gathered plants, flowers, trees and statuary from around the world, with the goal of providing a rich variety of splendid gardens, a pond and an assortment of vistas.

Your Digital Photo Academy instructor will demonstrate and supervise camera and composition strategies to blend and contrast the myriad of colors, patterns, shapes and textures, beginning in the stately manor, then the grounds and from there the spectacular vistas.

The interior space of the home is a vehicle to capture rich woodwork flourishes bathed in natural window light and the exterior allows for creative expression of architecture from close up and far off distances, pasted against the sky or situated amongst trees, colorful and flowers which vary from season to season, always offering portfolio worthy images with which to capture. Your DPA Instructor is experienced with commissions from clients over the years and can share his/her expertise in options for interior spaces, still life photos and many approaches in capturing the landscapes of the intricate gardens, broad landscapes and waterscapes from Swan Pond as well.

There will be unending opportunities for macro photography as well from colorful flowers as well as crawling creatures on the ground and flying birds and butterflies.

You will work on shutter speed control to transform flowing waters into velvety smooth depictions reminiscent of impressionist paintings as well as stop-motion of a split second of the waters spraying from a fountain.

Whether Rule of Thirds is your choice of composition, Leading Lines, Negative Space or many other options, your instructor will discuss, demonstrate and supervise the approach to develop your own signature style of taking photographs, a foundation that will serve your growing passion for all future photo activities, whether a raucous family reunion, a walk in your neighborhood, a special sporting event or a once-in-a-lifetime travel experience.

Meet your instructor at the front entrance.

Each Composition in the Field class begins with a talk with one of our experienced instructors, and then you and your fellow students take a stroll through one of a variety of photogenic locales (in any of the 20+ cities the DPA encapsulates). There is street photography, magnificent interiors, farmers markets, zoos, landscapes, and more, photos of which are included within. These photos are a mix of student and instructor images in many different venues and cities across the United States and Canada.

You will have fun in the three-hour session, learn to shoot strategically, get more interesting photos of the event, and walk away with a foundation to improve your photographs in the future, whether you’re traveling, or at a birthday party and everywhere in between.

Please note – if a class must be canceled due to weather or other circumstances beyond our control we will be happy to work with you to reschedule.  If you should need to cancel and require a new class date, contact us. A $25 transfer fee will be imposed without a 3-day notice before the scheduled class.