Meeting photographer Rob Cardillo
Last Saturday morning I had the pleasure of meeting professional photographer Rob Cardillo and observing as he photographed my front garden. He was scouting for images of regional design for his upcoming fourth book with Nancy Ondra, about perennial maintenance, and for ideas he can pitch to gardening magazines. What a thrill for my garden to be considered!
Thanks, Nancy, for sending Rob my way. And many thanks to Rob for his interest in my garden, his generous compliments, and his patience as I loitered on the front porch while he was shooting, distracting him with questions about his work, which assumed glamorous proportions in my mind. Finally, I went inside and lurked by the window with my daughter, watching him shoot, noting the scenes he composed and the equipment he used (a tall tripod and a shade device to block the glare of the sun).
If you’ve read Foliage or Fallscaping, you’ve seen Rob’s incredible images. Check them out if you haven’t already drooled over them.
While giving Rob a tour, I did fall, once or twice, into the trap of declaring that this plant looked great last week, or that plant won’t really shine until later this month. But when I caught myself I put a lid on it and just tried to see what was right—right now. Here are some of my own images of the front garden, which is holding up well despite the heat wave.
The southwest view from the front porch. The ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave provides the focal point, with Mexican oregano, rock penstemon, and bulbine flowering around it. The “hedge” of grasses on the far left is bamboo muhly; the one on the right is ‘Adagio’ miscanthus.
From this angle, my neighbor’s car seems to ride the rail of the front fence. How do you avoid those car shots when you have a front-yard garden, I ask you? I’m constantly cropping hoods and wheels out of my photos, but I show this one because it also contains the dovecote birdhouse, the ‘Belinda’s Dream’ rose, and the flowering, fragrant kidneywood tree to the left.
On the other side of the courtyard, more pink. If I’ve given you the impression that I don’t like pink, I apologize. While I’m ambivalent about the light, muddy pink of the crazy pink bluebonnets, hot pinks and candy pinks make me very happy indeed, plus they stand up to the intense sunlight in the front garden. From front to back: purple prickly pear, softleaf yucca, bat-faced cuphea, purple coneflower, and ‘Carefree Beauty’ rose.
Another view of the ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave from the central courtyard. From this angle you see white skullcap, Blackfoot daisy, and Mexican oregano, plus the rock penstemon on the left.
Coneflower power! Here’s an angle I don’t think I’ve shot before. Looking from the middle of the front porch toward the street: black-eyed Susan, Gulf muhly grass, and purple coneflower.
All material © 2006-2008 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
You garden is looking quite lush! Congrats again.
I got some new agaves and aloes. One of my aloes-maculata- flowered and sent out 15 pups-(I didn’t know what type of aloe it was until it flowered, as it was a little pup I pulled out of a pot in someone’s yard a couple years ago, and their gardener didn’t know the name. So I plan to do some aloe groupings.
Aloe groupings a la Lotusland, Nicole? Have you been following Chuck’s travel posts about that garden? Inspiring! Have fun with your agaves and aloes. —Pam
I’m so glad you had the chance to meet Rob, Pam. I can’t wait to see the images he captured of your garden, and I hope we’re able to get some into the book. I know gardeners in the South, West, and Midwest get annoyed (and understandably so) when publications are obviously slanted toward the East Coast. While it’s inevitable that my writing has a mid-Atlantic bias, seeing as that’s where I garden, reading blogs like yours has made me much more aware of a wider range of plants, and how even those I’m familiar with perform differently in different regions. (Purple coneflowers are one example that comes to mind!) Anyway, I’m sure Rob was delighted with your garden. He’s just a darn nice guy, isn’t he?
He is super nice! So friendly and engaging, and so modest about his own work. He was generous with his time too. If he turns my garden into the kind of eye candy I’ve enjoyed in your collaborative books, I’ll be overjoyed. But I will completely understand if the photos don’t make it into your book, Nan, so no worries.
It is true that reading blogs opens our eyes to the realities of gardening in other parts of the country (and world)—different climates, different plants, different soil. At the same time, it makes the world seem smaller by reminding us that all gardeners, no matter how far away, have challenges and setbacks, and we all delight in the beauty of foliage and flower and seasonal change. —Pam
It is no wonder that your garden was considered for Nan’s new book. Your garden is gorgeous no
matter what the weather might be. I hope it is featured in Nan’s book. I will look forward to
seeing it through Rob’s camera eye.
Thanks, Lisa! I look forward to seeing how he saw my garden too. —Pam
And er…I did type “d a r n”, even though it looks like “d a m”. I seem to be having spacing issues today!
It’s not you, Nan. It’s my font. I keep meaning to change it to something more legible. Sorry about that. —Pam
Pam, I don’t think I have ever seen a prettier yard! Thanks for sharing the pictures. I can’t imagine your yard NOT being chosen for the book! Beautiful!
Linda, thank you! You’re very kind. —Pam
How cool! I hope you’re able to get into the book. It is difficult to not to fall into the garden guiding trap of “If you had only seen it when…” And, of course, in Texas it would be nice if people came to visit in April or October–or at least on the day after a soaking rain. However, perhaps the design elements are more obvious now. The fact that your garden can look good in any season speaks volumes.
Thanks, MSS. Yes, I couldn’t help mentioning to Rob that April and October are typically the best seasons to see Austin gardens. But I think that’s probably not true for my front garden, which is blooming more right now, in early summer, than it was in April during the Spring Fling. Plus the perennials have had more time to fill out. So maybe Rob came at just the right time after all. —Pam
How exciting! So can you share any of his photography tips? What time of the day did he come? I can’t wait to see your garden further immortalized.
Hi, Vertie. Rob told me that he would arrive between 7 and 8 am, closer to 8 if it were overcast, which it was. At 7 am I was out there with pruners in hand, deadheading and doing a little last-minute trimming. He arrived around 7:45 and was unhurried as he talked with me and requested a tour. He probably didn’t start shooting until 8:20, but my front garden faces due west and is shadowed by the house in the morning, so it doesn’t get bright out there until later.
I neglected to ask any of his photography tips. Instead I asked him about his travels for his shoots (there’s the glamour that I was interested in) and the business side of his work : how he works with the editors of the magazines he shoots for and how he pitches ideas for stories to magazines. Fascinating stuff! —Pam
Pam, your garden is getting all of this attention, I think you should write your own book and use your own pictures. I’d buy it!
What a fun idea! I’d love to write a garden book someday, Robin. Thanks for letting me know that I would sell at least one copy. 😉 —Pam
Oohhh, I SO would have been doing what you did, hanging out, asking questions, bothering him incessantly, blah blah blah!! I would want to check out what kind of lens he had on the camera, what kind of camera, etc., etc. too. I desperately want one of those lens hoods myself, I think it would make a huge difference. I can’t imagine he took anything but fabulous shots of your garden as I’ve never seen it looking anything less in what you share on your blog. I agree with Robin, maybe you should consider your own book?
PS I haven’t visited for a while so I enjoyed catching up today. I would say your garden is holding up nicely in the savage heat. Happy belated anniversary too.
Thanks for dropping by again, Kathleen. And I’m with you—a much nicer camera with a good lens is on my wish list. —Pam
How exciting! I hope your garden will make it into the book!
Sam
Thanks, Sam. —Pam
It’s lookin’ really good. So glad I got to see it. If you ever make it this way, I need to share mine with you.
Congrats on the possibility of being included in one of Nan’s books.~~Dee
Thanks, Dee. I do hope to see you this summer when I go visit my mother in Tulsa. I’ll email you about it. —Pam
Your garden is looking wonderful right now, especially knowing that it has been so hot in Austin these last few weeks. It inspires me to get out and think more about the design of my own gardens. I hope a picture or two or more of your garden makes it into the book, as I’d buy a copy just for that reason.
And how do you get cars to drive along the tops of fences like that? I swear, Texas! is quite an interesting place, especially Austin. You never know what you might see…
Keeping Austin weird, Carol, even with Suburbans driving across rail fences. 🙂 —Pam
Wow what a real honor to be possibly chosen for a book. That is so exciting! Everything looks wonderful everyday in your garden!!!(-:
It is an exciting prospect, for sure. Thanks for your kind words, Cindee. —Pam
Pam, I love all the shots of your garden. It is certainly worthy of being in a gardening book. I too know what you mean about saying-you should have seen it when—- I think the gardener looks at his own plot with a far more critical eye. Your design has stood up to all the heat we have been having and it looks as though it was the perfect time for shooting pictures. We will all look forward to learning about the book. If you see someone looking over the fence this week it will be me. I just have to see the real thing.
Jenny
No need to peer over the fence, Jenny. I’d love to have you over for a visit and a look around. I owe you one after the fabulous pre-Spring Fling tour you gave us. I’ll contact you via email. —Pam
Pam: How exciting for you and an honor! The garden looks luminous in your shots. Did Rob ask YOU for any pointers? Just kidding but your photos are that good and I hope to see it in Nan’s next book. I own Fallscaping and must pick up those other two. Loved your ratibida shots also.
Thanks, Layanee. Yes, it was all very exciting. One thought that struck me while Rob was here is that without my garden blog, none of this fun stuff would be happening to me. No Spring Fling with gardeners from all over the country. No online conversations with garden authors, designers, and devoted gardeners. No visiting photographers. Fewer clients for my design business. Garden blogging has really opened a social and professional door for me. And I’m so grateful for the community I’ve joined through garden blogging. —Pam
Pam, I think it is great that Rob Cardillo has been shooting your garden (which looks lovely by the way). I find Rob to be an exceptionally nice and modest guy and I suspect that anything that he is working on with Nancy Ondra will be great. Rob shot some of the images that will appear in my forthcoming book, Designer Plant Combinations, which will be out this fall. There are also some photos of Nancy’s garden in the book.
By the way, I love your whale tongue agave–it is one of my favorites.
Scott
Rob and Nancy are both terrific people—as are their books. I’m trying not to get my hopes up about my garden appearing in their next one. 🙂 That’s cool that Rob shot some images for your upcoming book. I just read the description available on Amazon. It sounds intriguing!
That ‘Whale’s Tongue’ is my baby, Scott. I’d coddle it but, well, it IS an agave. By the way, are you having any trouble with the agave snout-nosed weevil in Arizona? —Pam
While the SUV-monorail made for a good joke, you’re so right that vehicles and trash containers make it hard to take photos in front gardens.
I also hope your garden will be in the book, but no matter what, you’ve had an interesting and complementary experience, Pam. Maybe the authors would like your mischievously handsome portrait of Rob for the “about the photographer” section inside the back cover flap.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
If the authors wanted to use my photo of Rob, they’d be welcome to it. He does look “mischievously handsome,” doesn’t he? —Pam
Pam – I saw Whale’s Tongue Agave for sale at a nursery around here. It made me think of you & your bug problems. I hope your Whale continues to do well, it’s the signature plant of your front garden. How thrilling to have Rob photograph your garden! I’ve read both of Nan’s books & admired the photographs. His is kind of a dream job – taking photos of gorgeous gardens & plants. He’s probably used to gardeners watching him at work & asking questions.
Wow, you didn’t buy it, MMD? I’m intrigued that it would survive in your zone, actually. The Whale’s Tongue in my garden seems to be doing well. The yellowing spots I’d worried over have healed, whatever they were.
Yes, Rob’s job does seem dreamy. But I’m sure the reality is quite different. —Pam
Hi Pam, Yes, we gardeners often get trapped into “it will look better next week, or it looked better 2 weeks ago”. What about Today? and Right Now? Nature is perfect, but in another meaning – not always most beautiful to us. Let’s see the beauty Today 🙂
Your garden looks gorgeous! and your pictures are beautiful. and the photographer is like candy 🙂
Greetings,
Ewa
I hope he reads your last comment, Ewa. 😉 Thanks for your thoughts. —Pam
Lookin’ good in the hood! Where’s the pitcher of martinis??????
Ha! I’m glad you enjoyed them when you were here, Mary Ann. —Pam
Lookin’ good in the hood! Where’s the pitcher of martinis??????
Ha! I’m glad you enjoyed them when you were here, Mary Ann. —Pam
Lookin’ good in the hood! Where’s the pitcher of martinis??????
Ha! I’m glad you enjoyed them when you were here, Mary Ann. —Pam
Lookin’ good in the hood! Where’s the pitcher of martinis??????
Ha! I’m glad you enjoyed them when you were here, Mary Ann. —Pam
I am smiling at your pinks clarification, Pam. I’m with you on the hot pinks (I can kind of squint and call them “almost red” instead of “pink!”) but I’d prefer the muddy ones to the cotton candy ones. But somehow you make all of them work in your garden–I don’t know how you do that! 🙂
That agave… have I mentioned lately that you can post up pictures of that agave every day if you feel so inclined? *grin* I LOVE that little scene you’ve created around it!
I have to separate the lighter pinks from the hotter colors with plenty of silver—‘Powis Castle’ artemisia is my go-to mediator plant.
Kim, thanks for letting me know you like the agave so much. I adore it, but I often worry that I bore everyone with too many photos of it. Look for more soon! —Pam
The Whale’s Tongue Agave was in the houseplants section. Definitely not considered a hardy perennial around here. As my house plants are limited to 3, 2 of which are cacti, I think it is prudent not to add to the listed of house plants I’ve killed.
I think your garden would be a perfect choice for that book – and everything looks beautiful. I’ve got bamboo muhly for the first time, and just love it – just one plant in a pot for now. Now I need to bravely get my first agave I think – yours always looks so wonderful, it really is a great focal point (but I fear in my larger garden that it will just get lost – I always feel like I have scale issues).
Oh – what a stable in your more recent post. Wow. That would be quite a fun place to hang around!
Well, you know there are some really large agaves out there, Pam, if you’re worrying about it getting lost. 😉 I’m so glad you’re enjoying your bamboo muhly. I just love that plant. —Pam