A visit to the Botanical Garden

I picked up Maria after work and headed to the western parts of Gothenburg where Slottskogen and Gothenburg’s Botanical Garden is situated. I wanted to get some “fresh” air, if that is possible in a city with almost 1 million in the metropolitan area.

I haven´t been to this areas since spring and wanted to see what the festival Way out West had done to Slottskogen but also get a feeling of what type of photographs I can take here now when the summer is coming to an end and the autumn color is slowly starting to show itself.

We began to take a short walk in Slottskogen and the place wasn´t buzzing with life but still there where many joggers out because the weather good if you compare to what we have had for big parts of this summer. The festival area that had been used for Way Out West was run down and the grass had taken a heavy beating. I understand that this is common and that it usually recoup in 2-3 weeks’ time.

We headed over to the Botanical Garden and as usual Maria ended up in the shop where you can buy plants, flowers and other garden stuff. I stayed outside and took some pictures of the different white flowers that they have at the entrance.

As soon as Maria felt she was ready to move on we headed further up in the Garden. I wasn´t really looking for anything when Maria pointed out the Red Squirrel that was up in the Hazel just hanging over the main path thru the Garden. I got out the camera and started to take some picture.

As you see by this picture the light wasn´t great but I could still produce a picture that is good for the web. The squirrel was really active and I had to use a slower shutter speed than I would have liked and the ISO is also a bit on the high side.

Still I stayed with the Squirrel for a couple of minutes to see what it did and if it would position itself in better light. It did sometimes but those photos aren´t as interesting as this.

I think this is a great capture of the Squirrel trying to reach the nuts in the Common Hazel and that is what makes this picture interesting for me. It could have been cleaner, I have done some noise reduction in Photoshop, and I would have like a higher shutter speed to get the extra sharpness. I usually like the nice blur that a low aperture gives you but in this case maybe f/5.6 would have been better than the f/4.5 that I had but that wasn´t to be this time considering the dark clouds in the sky.

Please enjoy the pictures at show.

Photo Gallery: A visit to the Botanical Garden