During the Noches de Luminaries the Desert Botanical Garden takes on a whole new look and feeling. Of course, it is dark. But, it is way more than that. First there are the crowds. They are happy crowds, some walking around with glasses of wine (in some cases bottles). They chat excitedly with the wonderment usually reserved for children. There are five bands spread out through the garden. The new entry that leads you back into the Garden has been finished and is very nice. To top it off, we had a full moon rise!! We slowly made some progress in getting shots . . . very slowly. Then we sat down, listened to one of the fine bands, had a glass of wine and enjoyed just being in such a wonderful space with a great friend.
These ladies were back. I think of them as the 'official greeters'.
There were several times when I felt as though I was at the bottom of the ocean. I love these prickly corals.
Part of the new entry way. It wraps around, is open and inviting.
We laughed and asked how many shots of the same scene we could take and make them look differently on the blog. I promised to crop mine in a different way. Ultimately, this shooting scene was one of that challenged our patience to get shots not dominated by people. We lost and went on to get wine!
Bottom of the sea again.
We got skunked on getting a decent image of the rising moon. What was fun was the number of people standing behind us watching to see if we would ever get one!! With gear like ours they must have thought we knew something!! LOL
A beautifully decorated tree was the site for many 'couple' shots.
On the way out Tom got us into some Tom foolery as we tried to practice zooming in or out on a long exposure. Sure, Tom!!!! Fortunately, before getting too discouraged with our results (which were lousy), our stomaches saved the day and we decided to get dinner at Thai Basil in Tempe. We hope you have plans to attend at least one night at the Gardens this season.
Now, why would we think we wanted to do this?