little green pixels

Little Green Pixels has relocated

2009-10-18T20:53:00.005-04:00

HEY! I've moved uptown! Here's my new address:

http://robcardillo.wordpress.com/

Please come see me there.

Beautifully Useful

2009-06-21T08:59:00.005-04:00

My favorite reference books are both practical and attractive. Whether it's a guide book, a manual or a monograph, I can find what I need quickly and then enjoy the scenery and side trips if I have the time. It's all about good informational design and The Perennial Care Manual has it in spades.

My first copy just arrived from Storey and it's outstanding (and not just because I did the photography.) The cover is both elegant and contemporary and the inside pages are beautifully organized and presented. Nan's words are clear and concise with just a touch of neighborly advice and flowery passion. She writes from years of trialling plants and testing techniques on her own handwoven perennial beds.

Expertly edited by Carleen Madigen and Gwen Steege who are two of the most efficient and kind-hearted book editors I've met. They know how to rework masses of words and images into graceful passages without roughing them up.

Physically, the paper is bright, the reproductions are sharp and the binding is flexible so it stays flat when opened -- a great feature when your hands are muddy and you need to reread an entry before you tackle a misbehaved perennial.

Only in New York

2009-05-31T22:55:00.004-04:00

I've been traveling to and from NYBG for an ongoing assignment this season and on my way home I usually walk the ten or so blocks between Grand Central and Penn Stations to get a little taste of the city. Last Wednesday, I came across this scene on Broadway near 42nd where several blocks have been closed to traffic transforming them into a sprawling pedstrian mall. To make the block party complete, the city set up hundreds of lawn chairs so people could sit, talk and play with their cell phones all the while bathing in one million watts of blazing neon.

Garden Design

2009-04-30T11:26:00.002-04:00

Wow! An unexpected cover of Garden Design! This was part of a feature on a Main Line sculpture garden that I photographed last summer. Full spreads to come....

Morven Museum and Gardens

2009-04-07T14:03:00.006-04:00

I'll be speaking at Morven Museum and Garden this Thursday morning at 10am. The talk entitled "Finessing the Flower, Lighting the Leaf!" will be lively and I'll be signing books afterward.

This picture is NOT from Morven (I've never been there) -- it's Chanticleer, the endlessly beautiful garden in Wayne which just reopened to the public last weekend.

Spring Collaborations

2009-03-30T21:43:00.012-04:00

Even when I'm on my own, shooting a garden is a collaborative act between the garden's creator and myself. A good designer has already established visual relationships and plant combinations that I must then translate and enhance through the lens. But when there's time and resources to bring in talented Art Directors, Photography Editors, Stylists and Producers, the results are often exceptional. Here are a few recently published examples:
Outdoor Rooms, Spring 2009. Produced and styled by Jon Carloftis. Jon is one of the most imaginative garden designers and stylists I know. We've worked together in PA and KY for several years now and I'm constantly floored by how quickly he can toss together a tasty tableau without breaking a sweat. I'm usually panicking as we arrive at a new site with a hot sun rising -- but Jon unfailingly whips the scene together before the magic moment has passed.
Philadelphia Home, Spring/Summer 2009. The Schumacher garden. The king of all difficult sites, this steep hillside has been reformed through thirty years of devoted care by Elizabeth and Ralph. Three main terraces hold sitting areas, exotic plant collections and one-of-a-kind garden objects from Liz's fine store, Garden Accents. Zoey Sless-Kitain, the magazine's most excellent PD, kept pointing me towards angles I had overlooked and Lisa Russell ably assisted with armfuls of tasty props.Country Gardens, Spring 2009. The Anne Spencer garden. This was a last minute find while shooting Lynchburg's famed Old City Cemetery with Marty Ross and James Baggett, editor and lover of literary gardeners. Anne Spencer (1882-1975) was a Harem Renaissance poet who found her muse in the natural world. This one wasn't on our schedule, so we had only a few hours to pull everything together. Marty artfully styled the set views with a trunk full of plants and some indigenous props before the rains arrived. One of the our finest garden writers (and recently knighted GWA Fellow), Marty also penned this sweet story.

Garden Design, April 2009. This Calla Lily feature was shot entirely in the Netherlands when Tovah and I traveled there last spring. With spathes this gorgeous, we couldn't pass them up during our visits to various breeders. Tovah championed the story and found it a beautiful home in the beautiful Garden Design. Our mugshots rubbed shoulders on the contributors page too.

The Horticourt in Session

2009-03-20T09:00:00.004-04:00

Just posted my first guest blog at Gardening Gone Wild. Come on over and see!

Yo, Adrian!

2009-03-12T09:44:00.010-04:00

I've recently been commissioned to photograph a selection of Fairmount Park's abundant public artworks. The park is ten times larger than Central Park in NYC and houses incredible objects like this one of Rocky at the foot of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Like many of the park's sculptures, it's been moved more than a few times. It first sat center stage at the top of the Museum's steps as a movie prop for Rocky III but highbrow types found the ten foot bronze offensive so it was relocated to the sports complex miles away. The statue was trucked back to the museum stairs for the filming of Rocky V, Mannequin and Philadelphia before it finally found a home in a grassy alcove to the side.
Weekends bring a stream of out of town visitors and many walk the mile from center city to be photographed touching the hem of his trunks. Some folks even run up the steps with their arms raised. But, alas, only a few go into the museum itself.

Tulip Time

2009-02-28T15:48:00.004-05:00

Another spring cover but this time it's tulips dancing in a mixed border at Keukenhof. The inside story, penned by Tovah, outlines the way Dutch master designer Jacqueline Van der Kloet integrates bulbs with other plants into meadow-like combinations. No more fussy little clumps of mono color! After 100+ years in Boston, our grande dame of of gardening mags, Horticulture, recently moved to Cincinnati. Now in the capable hands of AD Joan Heiob Moyers and ME Patty Craft, it continues to evolve in both style and content.

Workshops 2009

2009-02-21T16:58:00.003-05:00

For those folks who have asked, I've scheduled a bunch of one-day garden photography workshops this year. They'll all begin with my illustrated talk (Building Better Garden Photographs) followed by a few hours of one-on-one coaching at these beautiful locations. We'll gather again in the afternoon for a lively critique of our work. Here's where I'll be:

April 18 Longwood Gardens - may be sold out
May 16 New York Botanical Gardens
June 6 Delaware Center for Horticulture
June 30 (tentative) The Barnes Foundation

Bathing Beauty

2009-02-08T17:18:00.007-05:00

Another spring cover but this time it's from my own backyard. Nature's Garden, a newish title in the Meredith SIP lineup, is a fun and informative read for those of us who love to mingle with the natives in our chemical-free gardens. Jane McKeon, who I just met this past summer in Ohio, is their delightful new editor. The previous editor (and one of the most upbeat people I know) James Baggett, moved on to head up Country Gardens. He and gifted AD Jarret Einck directed this cover shoot with a few sketches and two phone calls. I also photographed three of the features for this issue -- Violets at Rita Sillivan-Smith's, written and produced by Tovah Martin; a Texas garden profile, produced by Barbara Nielson; and Trilliums at Edgewood Gardens written by Adam Levine.

Allium Love

2009-01-27T13:30:00.011-05:00

Alliums are my favorite bulb especially big showy ones like this Globemaster that graces the most recent cover of Organic Gardenin g magazine. I especially like the way the AD layered the type above and below the image for a more dimensional look. OG becomes more beautiful and more relevant with each new issue and I salute the passionate staff led by Editor Scott Meyer. Photographed at Keukenhof in Holland, a mecca for bulb lovers worldwide.

Awards

2009-01-23T23:00:00.005-05:00

A Guide to the Great Gardens of the Philadelphia Region garnered TWO GOLD AWARDS (BEST PHOTOGRAPHY and BEST BOOK) at the annul Garden Writer's Annual Symposium in Portland, OR last September. I don't know why it took me so long to post about this but I still feel quite honored every time I walk by these two handsome trophies.

Fordhook Farm

2009-01-16T17:57:00.010-05:00

For ten years now, I've had the privilege of shooting at Fordhook Farm for the Burpee catalog. Their seeds and plants are terrific in large part because they field trial and evaluate hundreds of varieties each year at their historic farm site in Doylestown -- just twenty minutes from my home. The Burpee empire now includes both the famed Heronswood and Cook's Garden catalogs and is helmed by George Ball whose own blog profoundly examines a wide range of topics.
Once just row upon row of vegetables and annuals, the 60 acre farm has been slowly transformed into a showcase of plant diversity under the guidance of crackerjack plant breeder Grace Romero. Increasingly, you'll find corners filled with exotic perennials and woodies (many from the Heronswood collection) where only tomatoes and impatiens fared in past years. Still, food crops are the major players here and I've spent many a hot summer day shooting unbelievably fresh produce with sharp-eyed Michele King, the Burpee AD, and her talented staff. My real payoff is when I get to bring home armfuls of leftovers. A flurry of soups and stirfries usually ensues but we still haven't found a recipe for ten heads of leaf lettuce.

Gale Nurseries: Four Generations of Garden Excellence

2009-01-07T14:59:00.013-05:00

Many of the Philadelphia region's finest gardens were designed by the Gale family and this new book showcases some of their best work. Chuck Gale, third generation landscape designer, envisioned this book years ago after seeing some of his father’s garden creations fade away when properties changed hands. He called in Adam Levine, a regular writer for Martha Stewart Living to not only write the garden essays, but also to manage the project from beginning to end. The book was meticulously crafted and designed under the careful eye of Charles Nix and George Scott of Scott&Nix and printed by The Studley Press. Finally published late in 2008, it has been a holiday hit with everyone who’s paged through the 35 profiled gardens. Don’t know if and when it will be available for purchase but it does offer a window into some gorgeous Main Line backyards that few will ever see otherwise. Here are a few favorite views:

'Twas the Day After Christmas

2008-12-28T16:12:00.012-05:00

Ginny Smith, ace Gardening Writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, profiled me for their December 26 edition. Here's the online version. She spent a few hours interviewing me earlier this month and even called my dear old Dad for a quote or two.

Michael Perez, one of the paper's top shooters, had a tough job finding a suitable background for a winter portrait but got creative with the framing. They also ran six pictures of mine.

Some of my blogging friends (Susan , Nan and Christa) picked up on the interview and gave the story an even bigger boost.

Les Knuckleheads

2008-12-20T19:46:00.010-05:00

Welcome to our two new rescued friends! Romeo (top) and Sasha, resulted from Sue visiting a PAWS storefront shelter just to make a few inquiries. We were looking for a pair of dogs that had lived together and there they were stuck amongst the two dozen cats and kittens. Romeo is a Cocker Spaniel but Sasha's pedigree has defied everyone's attempts to unravel -- head of Boxer, chest of a Pitbull, legs of a Bassett and ears of a bat! She also gets these groovy Sharpei forehead wrinkles when she's puzzled. Both lovable as all heck but they have their issues. LOTS of energy expressed through running, chewing and barking -- the local squirrels are getting a workout and our cats are talking to their lawyers...

The Princess and the Bulb

2008-12-02T13:53:00.012-05:00

Just before Thanksgiving, I had the honor of documenting a celebrity gardening event at the NYBG. Their Seasonal Walk, a long border just outside the conservatory, has been thickly planted with a sophisticated mixture of flowering bulbs and perennials following a plan generated by two of the world's top garden designers, Piet Oudolf and Jaqueline van der Kloet (above), both of the Netherlands.
Borders within the bed were marked off by colored ribbon and thousands of bulbs were expertly distributed amongst the already planted perennials by Jaqueline and Frans Roozen, Technical Director of the International Flower Bulb Center. Despite the freezing temperatures, the garden crew followed behind and dug the rich mix of major and minor bulbs into the hard crusty soil.Tovah Martin, the demigoddess of horticultural writers, was also in attendance proving that frozen fingers and lips are still capable of asking good questions and taking notes.

The real media event followed the next morning when Princess Margriet of the Netherlands arrived with her husband Pieter van Voallenhoven and Todd Forest of the NYBG. Kneeling on clean burlap and using a trowel engraved with the royal crest, the Princess cheerfully popped a few tulips into the ground. This picture was quickly emailed to de Telegraa f in Holland to make page three that evening.

VOTE "O"

2008-10-30T14:07:00.006-04:00

Someone out to get the passionate gardening vote knew that plant graffiti would be hard for any chlorophyll lover to miss. This scrawled message was spotted at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill in one of their Habitat Collections -- three small but deliciously designed gardens representing the diverse geographic regions of NC.

I've spotted lots of defaced beech trees and even some etched bamboo canes in my travels but this is the first cactus I've seen bearing a bumper sticker. Not that it matters, but I'll be voting for Opuntia this year.

Amazing Space

2008-10-19T21:55:00.014-04:00

A few outtakes from a recent assignment for the New York Times Home section. This one took me to a reclaimed lot in Baltimore where good folks from the Amazing Grace Lutheran Church built more than just a community garden -- they created a sacred space.
Nearly an entire block in size, The Amazing Port Street Sacred Commons includes a labyrinth, a vegetable garden and a lush grassy area surrounded by colorful murals and metal sculpture. It's hard to see any remnants of the trash and drug dealing that once filled these lots.

After the shoot, everyone left but I stayed a while longer hoping for a cloud or two to soften the harsh midday sun. The pretty light never really came but I did get to meet a few neighbors walking through the Commons. Despite the occasional sirens (and even gunshots) in the background, the conversations I had were sweet and uplifting. Open space=Open hearts.

This is one of about 120 public projects partly funded by the forward thinking TKF Foundation who believe that sacred spaces increase a sense of community and contribute to a deepening of human connections.

Anne's Tomatoes

2008-10-11T13:52:00.008-04:00

Two pictures from a shoot with Anne Raver for the New York Times Home section. The bottom one ran last Thursday along with a handful of others detailing the chores and pleasures of fall gardening. Anne's family farm nestles comfortably into a rolling hillside of rural Maryland and we had fun putting these little stories together. So many wonderfully authentic details and Anne's delicious prose made for a sweetly compelling feature.

Goodbye to Donny

2008-10-01T09:38:00.012-04:00

Sadly, after a month of illness, our beautiful little tough guy had to be put down yesterday. A wrenching decision, but he was no longer eating or drinking and could barely walk. The vets office handled him (and us) beautifully in a small private area that felt more like a guest bedroom with a small rug, sofa and soft lighting. He went gently but not without lots of tears and promises from us.

Without a doubt, he had more personality than any other animal we’ve shared our home with. Probably bred as a fighting dog, with both Pit Bull and Doberman genes, his ears and tail were clipped and docked but his soul was filled only with love and playfulness. Sue negotiated his rescue 14 years ago from a series of bad homes in our old neighborhood and he quickly became a dominant figure in our lives.

Always ready to take a walk, eat anything that could be remotely described as food and chase a ball for endless hours at a time, his enthusiasm lifted our spirits over and over. And when he wasn’t charging about, he enjoyed close contact and soaked up affection like sponge. May he rest in peace.

Night Crawl for Voodoo Doughnuts

2008-09-26T14:33:00.019-04:00

It was evening in Portland and feeling the need to escape the rubber chicken, the gummy cheesecake and re-breathed air of the DoubleTree, C. and I took an walk outside. Perhaps as am antidote to working so much in the realm of daylight, I'm finding myself more and more attracted to the mysteries of night photography.

Urban spaces defined only by artificial light sources - tungsten, sodium vapor, mercury, neon - mix it up with a little moonlight to offer a new palette of possibilities. And one without any commercial sensibilities. What freedom!

Carrying one sensitive camera with a very fast lens, we strolled through the empty neighborhoods surrounding the hotel stopping every now and the to explore nocturnal colors, gestures and light. Realizing the need for a destination (not so much as a place to satisfy a sweet craving but as an arbitrary end point), we headed to Voodoo Doughnuts - open all night and sure to delight.

Asking directions a few times from strangers on desolate streets, we finally spot an eerie blue glow. Entering, we inhale the yeasty air, make our choices from the rotating dessert case, and sit at old school desks to watch the parade of night folks.

Big Leaves, Big Drama

2008-09-03T00:52:00.009-04:00

Big leaves hog center stage in Chanticleer's August garden. Add a dash of hard sun and you can almost hear the photosynthetic pulse of these tropical giants. As much as I adore lotus blooms, their lingering seed pods have all the personality. Like articulated shower heads, they twist their twiggy necks to gape at their neighbors.

Canna 'Tropicanna' is as common as you get but it still grabs me when backlit. And it absolutely floors me when the light also wraps gently from the side.

And the Red Banana, Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelli', is made even more gorgeous when the shadows of a nearby fine-leafed tropical play over the bright green and orange bands. What this late summer foliar exuberance needs now is a soundtrack of sprinklers, crickets and ice cream trucks.

Chanticleer - a pleasure garden

2008-07-28T11:01:00.006-04:00

Without a doubt, Chanticleer Garden is the finest public garden I have ever roamed. How fortunate that I live only 20 minutes away and can frequently savor their inspired horticultural displays. Chanticleer was on the Perennial Plant Symposium tour last week and I'm sure that jaws were dropping by the score as they toured the grounds. My twenty minute talk (condensed into 10 as I was pushing into the first coffee break) at Tuesday's plenary session was well received by at least one blogger, Kevin Neal. Thanks for the good press, Kevin!

Night Trees

2008-07-04T20:14:00.007-04:00

Long time, no blog. I've been on assignment for much of May and June and haven't found the right moment to post. Here's a new twist on some familiar horticultural subjects. Photographed long after sunset in hotel parking lots, these trees still have presence and beauty.

Winners!

2008-04-13T16:58:00.004-04:00

Two of my books won prestigious awards recently. Foliage, penned by my extremely talented and uber-green-thumbed friend, Nancy Ondra, was one of the four titles chosen for the 2008 American Horticultural Society Book Award.

And the Guide to the Great Gardens of the Philadelphia Region, (authored by another exceptionally gifted and horticulturally subversive friend, Adam Levine) won a Silver Award of Achievement in the 2 008 Garden Writer's Association Media Awards program for Book Photography and is eligible for a Gold Award to be announced later this year.

Two words for two awards: WOO and HOO!

Beyond Marshmallow Peeps

2008-04-02T05:48:00.005-04:00

Imaginative Easter treats fill a bakery window in Amsterdam. This holiday (like so many) has pagan roots and is derived from an equinox celebration honoring Eastre, the Saxon goddess of dawn and fertility (that's where the rabbits and eggs fit in!)

Miek's bulbs

2008-03-20T13:48:00.005-04:00

Miek Stap is a Dutch wonderland of talent. Website designer, photographer, tour guide and snow sculptor are just a few of the many hats she wears. When I arrived in Holland, she picked me up from the airport, stopped at a local nursery and whipped up these tasty little flowering bulb arrangements while I was still reeling from the all night flight. Photographed in her kitchen and framed by two of her own garden images.

Saturday Morning in Amsterdam

2008-03-17T12:47:00.005-04:00

Just back from the land of toolips and stroopwafels and came across this engaging window scene. I hope to post more Holland images in the next few days.

Vegetables in Repose

2008-02-21T01:23:00.006-05:00

Jessica Walliser and I created this image for the cover of the wonderful and witty book she co-wrote with Doug Oster, Grow Organic. These guys are exceptional hands-on gardeners back in my home town of Pittsburgh and they wave that organic flag high. Jessica stopped at a friend's farm to load up on these gorgeous props and I can't recall an easier still life to build. Everything was do damn fresh!

Cry Baby

2008-02-14T01:01:00.003-05:00

Photographed this sweet smile from the bus riding back from a day at the temple gardens in Kyoto.

Swan Pond

2008-02-13T21:28:00.006-05:00

Years after his mate died, Clyde the Mute Swan still patrols the watery corners of his domain at Morris Arboretum. Swans have been part of this garden's history since the original owners introduced the first pair, Lohengrin and Elsa, in 1905.

Eastern State Penitentiary

2008-02-10T12:11:00.003-05:00

Opened in 1829, this controversial prison was based on a Quaker principal of repentance through isolation and hard labor. Prisoners were allowed little human contact and encouraged to silently reflect on their crimes. The radially designed complex spawned over 300 other prisons worldwide. Closed in 1971, the massive buildings and grounds decayed and are now a popular tourist spot, especially at Halloween.

New Website!

2008-02-04T20:53:00.002-05:00

After long nights of screen staring and combing through files, I finally launched my new website. Designed and hosted by LiveBooks, the use of their templates make updating images a piece of cake. I especially like the diptychs and mirrored images this format inspires.

Swaddled Tree

2008-01-30T13:26:00.002-05:00

Many of the street trees in Japan were propped with sturdy posts but this one in Tokyo's Shinjuku Gyoen Garden also sported a puffy coat. Not sure what the purpose of all this protection was but it sure gave the appearance of a bundled old man out for a long walk.

Witch Hazel in Snow

2008-01-25T13:13:00.001-05:00

I do love witch hazel for it's sinus-piercing perfume in the dead of winter. This cultivar, Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena' is gorgeous but, alas, not very fragrant. Wish I would have known that before I gave it a prominent spot in my front yard! I'm commitment phobic about trees in general. Choosing and planting something that lives for more than a few years always makes me hesitate. I've opened Dirr's book dozens of times only to end up with a long list of finalists and no front runner.

Liberty Bell Crack

2008-01-25T11:56:00.001-05:00

Philly's famous bell has a new home across the street from Independence Hall. It's still visible 24 hours a day but is surrounded by a new visitor's center filled with interpretive displays. This is actually the third version of the bell. The first one cracked as it was initially rung in 1753 and was melted down and recast with more copper. The new one sounded flat and was again recast. It rang most famously (but perhaps mythically) on July 8, 1776 to announce a reading of the Declaration. This crack appeared sometime in the mid 1800's.

Adam in the greenhouse

2008-01-14T21:46:00.001-05:00

What's more fun than unearthing old images and seeing them fresh! Here's Adam tending his pelargonium collection in the ancient estate greenhouse near his home. This was part of our first collaboration and resulted in a Garden Design feature.