Tom Fisher from New York State sees plants and gardens in a unique and inspirational way.
"Imagine. The word gets your mind running. Songs start playing, memories flood in and thoughts of all kinds flow forth. I love to garden as it inspires me to imagine. Every season I imagine what it might be next, what it could be, every morning I imagine what may have bloomed, what passer by my garden might inspire, what creature it might nourish.
My name is Tom Fisher, and I live in Lancaster, NY where we enjoy four seasons of gardens and I spend a lot of time in winter imagining what I can do next.
"Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination. You are always living three, or indeed six, months hence. . . . To be content with the present, and not striving about the future, is fatal.”
– Alice Morse Earl
My camera phone has become as much a garden tool for me as the pruner and trowel capturing the beauty to take with me and to plant the seeds in my imagination of what my garden might be. When I look at my garden through my camera, I see it in different ways. I love to imagine what others see when they look at my garden as I imagine when I look at theirs. What do you imagine when you look at these photos? What do you imagine a garden should be?"
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Comments
G'day Tom - Your imagination is obviously working well for you based on your narrative and pics. In my case, a garden is a labour of love and should be a space to relax, contemplate, stimulate the senses and enjoy with others. Cheers from Oz
One of the only replies to answer one of my questions, kudos to you & thanks!
What fantastic photos! Wish I could see your garden in person. Thoroghly enjoyed your sentiments accompanying the photographs as well. Imagine indeed, food for thought. Helps us get through our long cold winters.
Sandy Prowse
Toronto Canada.
Thank you. Toronto is not far from here you should come enjoy Buffalo's garden walk last weekend of every July. I'm not in the city but you'll find hundreds of fantastic gardens open to walk thru and enjoy. https://gardensbuffaloniagara.com/events/garden-walk-buffalo/
I did this walk A few years ago. Drove 500 miles from New Hampshire to enjoy it! It was worth it! ?
Very artistic use of the plants in your garden, the photos you take of them, the tools that are available to enhance them, and your imagination to create unusual graphic presentations. You have an artist's eye and a gardener's green thumb.
Thank you Sonya!
Good morning, Tom. I love the editing you did with the photos. It makes us look at plants in very different ways. Very creative. Enjoyed your pictures. Well done.
Thank you!
What a delight! I thoroughly enjoyed your imagination and creativity this morning. You certainly have a gift of insight and presentation. Thank you for sharing your talents with us today! Calendar-worthy!
Thank you, I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed them! :)
Hi, Tom, my eyes lit up reading the Alice Morse Earl quote that you included. I had just recently come across the first line of it and it really struck a chord. It is nice to know the additional lines. Some of the arrangements and framings of your plant material make me think of the amazing patterns on butterflies... where Mother Nature shows off her creativity. I really enjoyed your photos and echo Diane's request for additional ones.
Thank you for your kind words. You mentioned butterflies and coincidently one just visited and I got this quick shot before reading your note. I was amazed at how nature so perfectly camouflaged this butterfly for the flowers it frequents.
Delightful picture...glad you included it with your comment. Is that a zinnia that the butterfly is so contentedly nestled in? Also, I couldn't help but wonder if you plant additional new mums each spring and/or fall? or do have some reliable pincushion types that come back beautifully each year?
Zinnia it is! They're a must have in the garden for butterflies & the humming birds love them too. In fact the butterflies are out by the dozen today! I have a lot of mums that come back year after year some are 3-5 years old or more and some quite large but I'm not great at pruning them to shape and also end up adding more every year.
Just call me simple-----the one I like best is the bee(s) on the coneflower landing strip .
I've got to look up Alice Morse Earl she sounds like she knows a bit about gardening.
That is my favorite as well. Thanks.
Very cool, Tom! How do you get the kaleidoscope effect?
All the pictures are taken with a Samsung cell phone and it's photo app
The kaleidoscopic ones remind me of the little trays with displays of flower petals, leaves, and fruit on the doorsteps of homes and shops of Bali, Indonesia 25 years ago. I hope they still prepare their offerings. Thanks for sharing your photos, Tom.
Wow! Fantastic! How do you do it? What a lovely surprise I've never seen anything like this.
Thanks Lily, all with my old android cell phone you can do this too!
Wow! All I can say is wow! I still can't figure out what the second and third photos are of...I know they are mums, but I'm trying to figure out the perspective. These all look like they should be part of the Epcot flower show! Great job!!!!
I've never been to the Epcot flower show but would love to go. You are right they are mums shot from above. The third shot is a hanging basket pure lucky shot as it was up so high I didn't get a good look myself to see the shot as I took it until I brought the phone back down.
Sometimes I feel like I have a muse walking with me thru the garden telling me where, how & what to photograph. I guess that's part of the fun of the garden for me.
Beautiful gardens, Tom! The geometry of flowers in bloom is really stunning...reminds me of mandalas or that old-fashioned toy that you looked through and turned the end to make an ever-changing display of geometric shapes. The beauty of nature in your garden is hard to beat!
Thank you. Now that's a fond memory of that toy viewer and the days when our imagination was a big part of play!
Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder and there is no doubt your eye sees extraordinary beauty in your gardens. Your artistry behind the lens is fascinating.
I, too, echo Diane's request for more photos of your gardens.
I will have to work on taking good pictures of the broader garden. To me they are generally unimpressive. Meanwhile here's a picture that I just tool after this series was posted that I really like and hope you might enjoy as well.
Very artistic! Love ❤️ the tomato photo.
Thank you!
Don't know how you made the photos but truly beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
All with an old Samsung s5 cell phone. Anyone can do it with just a little imagination!
Thank you for your kind words and suggestion. I will have to work on my skills at taking broader shots to share. Here's one for now. Maybe more next submission
Gorgeous!
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