Bartram’s Garden is one of the many hidden gems within the city of Philadelphia. It is a 50-acre National Historic Landmark with historic buildings, historic gardens, meadows, woods and walking trails along the Bartram’s Mile portion of the Schuylkill River Trail system. There are many wonderful sights in this world of nature embedded in an urban setting with a view of the skyscrapers of Center City Philadelphia.

John Bartram was the pre-eminent American botanist by his death in 1777. A third generation Quaker born in Darby, he purchased this land in 1728 from Swedish early settlers. Bartram started a nursery business here that was continued by his son and later granddaughter, and the heritage of American plantings in a beautiful historic setting is continued here now that the Garden is public. Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin visited here. To top it off, Bartram was also a stonemason and left behind examples of his work on the buildings.

You will be learning important composition techniques with guidance from a professional photographer. There will be a little instruction and a lot of hands-on photography with plenty of opportunity to ask questions, interact with fellow learners and get many of your own great photos. Some topics in composition, like depth-of-field and motion, require particular camera settings so the mechanics needed for those will be introduced as they are needed.

However, very little time will be spent on camera controls, since much of composition is about the elements of composing an image, for example, choosing views, using light, texture, the use of lines and forms particularly leading lines and frames, forms particularly leading lines and frames, symmetry, balance, and perspective & point-of-view.

Please bring your camera – smartphone, DSLR, Mirrorless or other type of camera. Make sure your battery is fully charged. A camera is all that will be necessary for the class, but you are welcome to bring any other camera accessories you want. Whatever you bring, it should be readily carried, since we will be moving around a lot. You should dress for the weather and wear comfortable shoes. Please arrive early because you will need to walk to the meeting place.

Please meet at the gates of the visitors entrance to the Garden. The address is 5400 Lindbergh Boulevard,
Philadelphia, PA. As you enter the grounds on the entrance road, it ends at the gates of the visitors entrance where we will meet, just past a small bridge. There is a large visitor parking lot loop off to the left.

The trip is about 15 minutes by car from Center City, and about a half hour by public transit (the #36 trolley stops on Lindbergh Av at the clearly marked entrance road, with a 5-minute walk from there to the meeting place).

 

Call Digital Photo Academy at 1 877 372 2231. Lots of people seem to hang up if our welcome recording comes on instead of a live voice, but we promise to return your message within a day or two if you leave one with your name and number.  It would be even better if you included your e mail address as well as the date and city of the class you are considering.  If leaving a voice mail message is not your thing, please email us at [email protected].