The House on the Rock

Just a few weeks ago my husband and I went the Wisconsin Dells with some friends of ours. Not a whole lot to do in the Dells in the off season...plus I was getting around on a scooter due to my severely sprained ankle and our friends we were with are expecting a baby around Thanksgiving..."Prego & Gimpy" that was our little nickname for ourselves. Needless to say we weren't having any crazy adventures. While we were out there we ventured out to The House on the Rock. We only took the tour of the house itself and walked through the gate house and the gardens but it was still very interesting. It was kinda cramped in the house but there were many things that were very unique that we saw. BUT what I really enjoyed about our tour were the gardens. I took the opportunity to try out my new lens (50mm f/1.8 prime lens).  I really like the blurring affect with the shallow dept of field. So the following are a few of the flowers I found in the garden that inspired me.

I have no idea what kind of flower this is but I LOVED IT! I have always been a fan of draping, willowy greenery. Its just so beautiful how they gracefully fall to the ground. I also found the texture of these flowers very unique...they looked soft and fuzzy but brittle and crispy at the same time...I thought they were cool! But there's more...

I think I have seen these type of flowers before but still don't know what these are either. Anyway, aside from the flowers themselves being pretty I thought the shapes they formed were very playful. They actually remind me a little of the mythical greek creature the "Hydra" with all its heads and necks that would multiply each time one was cut off...or perhaps the snakes that were atop  Medusa's head. The shot above I liked because of the dark background that silhouettes the playful arms of the plant create. It is as though they are dancing infront of you. I took another shot that captured the whole plant and I think that I should have closed the aperture some on the camera because I'm not sure I like the fuzziness of one of the arms reaching forward toward the camera. I think it would have had a more striking appearance if all the tentacles were in focus. Here's that one.

It still looks cool...just not as much as I think it could...the blurred ones in front are distracting from the image as a whole. 

Those were my two favorites, I felt like they were the "stronges" images I look in the garden. There were some others that were nice too. Just not quite as striking or interesting...still pretty though.

Ok...the next one was just kinda funny...looks a bit like a Jack-O-Lantern. Well here it is.

Thats all I've got for now. I'm still planning on trying to keep to my once a week plan. I did spend some time on Friday taking photos but haven't gotten to sorting through them yet...so hopefully by the end of the week I'll have some of those up.