Morning Photography at National Botanic Gardens, Dublin, Ireland.

Photography Date: 08-01-24

The Botanic Gardens of Ireland are only 5 or 10 minutes down the road from where I live and is a place that I have been to many times before. It’s a great spot to bring a camera as there are lots of plants, wildlife and building of interest to photograph. Its free to enter and there is ample free parking on site behind the visitor’s centre. The visitor’s centre is kitted out with a nice (if overpriced) cafe and toilets. Another bonus with this location is the fact that it is joined onto Glasnevin Cemetery, one of the largest cemeteries in the country. You can walk into the cemetery from the gardens and explore the many old graves, statues and monuments.

Map showing the location of the Botanic Gardens

As is typical this time of year, I had hoped for good light, but I got another overcast, cold and cloudy morning. Unperturbed by this I commenced my stroll around the grounds on the hunt for a composition that I had not used before at this location. While walking around the side of one of the large greenhouses, I came across an area with a park bench and what looked like long dried out grass. I'm no botanist, so don't expect any insights into plant types here! I liked the view of the old damp bench nestled amongst the grass, with the greenhouse in the background. I took the image below, handheld, trying to use the grass to frame the bench.

ISO 320 f/4.0 1/100sec 33mm

As you can imagine at this time of year there is not a whole lot of colour in the gardens (outside the greenhouses), but at the same time there are many differant features and textures in differant areas to focus on. As I continued on my walk, I entered a little walled section of the gardens where they seem to grow assorted vegetables on well organised beds. There is a little stone workshop in the garden that I had noticed on previous visits and liked the look of it. I took the photo below using the small hedge to lead the eye more towards the building. I cropped the bit of sky out of this, as it was overcast and dull and did not add to the image.

ISO 320 f/4.0 1/15sec 26mm

The river Tolka borders the north of the gardens and provides many locations for herons to catch some fish. I spotted one perched on a weir, on the hunt for lunch. The bird was partially obscured by some foliage, so I had to get down low and use the 400mm lens to get in as close as possible. I took quite a few images of the bird, framed by the branches. The water provided a nice unobstructed reflection as well.

ISO 1250 f/7.1 1/60sec 400mm

Just as I was finished taking photos of the heron, a little robin hopped out of the hedgerow to say hi! Of course, I had to take a picture.

ISO 1250 f/7.1 1/200sec 400mm

Leaving the river behind and walking back up the hill towards the main green houses, you come across a stream flowing down what is most probably a man-made waterfall. I still had the long lens on and felt that I could get a nice shot here. The slower shutter speed and compression offered by using this focal length gave a nice result.

ISO 200 f/7.1 1/5sec 400mm

After the waterfall, I walked up to the greenhouses with the intention of getting a few photos of the inside. As I was taking images inside, I found that my lenses were misting up continuously! Every time I wiped the lens, it would steam up within 5 secs or so making it impossible to get a photograph. This was really strange and had never happened to me before. I think it may have been caused by the temp difference between the outside and the humid warm inside. Plus, my gear and I were pretty cold as it was baltic outside. Let me know if this has happened to you before?

Anyway, I gave up on that idea and thought it may be time to call it a day and headed back outside. Once outside, the sun broke through for 2 or 3 min and lit up the outside of the green house. I got the shot below, which although is a nice composition, I wasn’t too keen on the roadway on the bottom right. So, in post I thought it might look a bit nicer if it was just lawn, using the generative fill function on lightroom I got the result at the bottom. Let me know which you prefer?

ISO 100 f/9.0 1/100sec 24mm

ISO 100 f/9.0 1/100sec 24mm (Generative Fill)

I did do a quick lap of the cemetery after this, but I was getting a bit tired and hungry, and the lighting sucked, so I called it a day. I stopped and had a bit of lunch in the cafe and was soon on my way home. I like coming to this place, and I will return in a couple of months when the plants are in full bloom to see what I can get.