Untermeyer Gardens, Yonkers

View from the south entrance.

Saturday we had planned a day trip to Untermeyer Gardens in Yonkers, NY for my wife’s birthday. Upon entering the walled garden, this is what I saw. But, it was not what my camera captured.

“Just bring your point-and-shoot”, said my wife. So I grabbed my Canon SD780 IS. It’s about as point-and-shoot as I can get. But I had some redscale film loaded in my Nikon F3, so I brought that along too. I tried to take some parallel exposures between the two cameras, so I can tweak my redscale curves at some future date.

When we walked through the south gate, we emerged under a dark shroud of trees, and before us a sunlight vista consisting of two intersecting water channels. A photographer’s nightmare.

It was an amazing scene, which the human eye was able to process effortlessly. I took the shot, chimped, adjusted the exposure compensation, and tried again. But the camera got it right the first time at -1/3 stop. This was a case for post-processing, which as you can see transformed the near total blackness of the foreground into something quite similar to the original scene.

At the end of that long channel of water lie an amphitheater, flanked by two loggias which featured beautiful mosaic tile in many different patterns.

One of the loggias flanking the amphitheater.

The sunlight filtering through the loggias cast some interesting shadows on the tile mosaic below.

The color of the tiles was quite muted, but it was present nonetheless, so an opportunity to perform my L*a*b* magic was afoot. I couldn’t resist taking a few exposures to see what I could come up with. In the lightroom, I white balanced them in ACR first, sampling from what appeared to be the most neutral tile.

Tile Mosaic, post-processed in L*a*b* color.

Tile Mosaic, post-processed in L*a*b* color.

The potted plant you see in the image of the loggia on the right is a Canna Tropicana. I had encountered its verigated leaves before in the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine. But here, the sunlight had backlit one of the leaves, creating this amazing image.

Canna Tropicana

Looking south, you can see the canopy of trees so dense that they obscure the south wall. The rich greens were complimented by a cloudless blue sky. It was a perfect day.

The view looking south.

Looking west towards the river from the loggia on the left, we see the 1,000 steps leading to the Vista Overlook. At the bottom, a circular area framed by 2,000 year old imported columns. Either side of this circular area is a path. If you follow the path to the south, you can loop around through the woods and arrive about midway up the steps.

1,000 steps leading to the Vista Overlook

2,000 year old columns frame the view across the Hudson River.

The Palisades, as seen from the overlook. The ruins of the gatehouse can be seen in the lower left.

Looking west: The Mosaic Temple and Swimming Pool

Waterlillies in the intersecting water channels channels.

With the reflection of the sky, columns and greenery in the rippling water, this looks like a painting.

All in all, it was a beautiful day, in a beautiful space. On the way home, we stopped at a local eatery for a late lunch. Looking forward to the next time we visit, as there is much more to see and explore than we had time for.