This week, Ann-Christine reminds us that it’s a great time of year to visit a garden. She writes, “There are so many ways to look at a garden, so, my idea is to see what You have found, what You see – at home or anywhere in the world. Everything from your window sill to a big park – to me they are all gardens. And what we have in them, is all up to us! I guess something that brings you harmony, makes you smile, makes your world a bit easier to live in. So – What’s in a Garden? Feel free to use any meaning of the word – or create your own!” You can read her entire challenge post here.

Ann-Christine’s challenge reminded me that it’s time to visit the gardens at North Dakota State University. I don’t always take pictures there, sometimes just stop to sit on a bench and enjoy a nice summer day. Since I have a new camera, I thought it might be fun to check out its performance for close-in photography. For this series of images taken on August 10, I used my Nikon Z7 II with Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 lens. I’d seen some examples of sun stars created with that combination, so I stopped down the lens to f/14, ISO to 90 and aperture priority. The camera selected 1/25 sec. exposure.

I am not a horticulturalist, so I don’t know even the common names of most of the flowers I saw in the garden. So, instead of spending a ton of time researching, I’m simply going to tell you a bit about the gardens and their purposes.

The NDSU Horticulture Research & Demonstration Gardens webpage here notes, “Featuring an extensive collection of pre-1980 daylily cultivars and a substantial iris collection, the NDSU Horticulture Research & Demonstration Garden is the only recognized garden of its type in the world.“

This image was captured at 120 mm, f/8. The lens at full zoom has a very narrow depth of field even at f/8, as I expected.

Reducing the zoom to 100 mm, the depth of field at f/8 is much wider. Many reviewers panned the Nikon Z camera focus system especially compared to Canon and Sony’s autofocus tracking systems. I have noticed in my limited experience that the system works well most of the time. It’s a bit slow and likes to grab focus on brighter backgrounds, but at today’s prices, it’s hundreds of dollars less expensive than those more capable competitors. As a landscape photographer, I’ve got plenty of time to ensure correct focus. If I were a sports or wildlife photographer, I probably wouldn’t be so generous with my “review.”

The Z7 II has a 45.7 megapixel sensor that generates beautiful, deep colors. After two months of use, I’m happy with the images it creates. What little action photography I do, I will defer to my Nikon D500 which is a better tool in that regard.

Note that my theme likes to insert a large gap between text and video links. Scroll down for more. The video is a gallery of the eleven images I selected to share for the challenge. To view full screen, click the four arrows symbol in the lower right corner before selecting the “Play” symbol.

I took quite a few photographs at the gardens in preparation for this challenge, and narrowed them down to a total of 11 images. I put my favorites in this post and created the video slideshow above to show off the entire 11-image gallery. I have also shared the images in 2K HD on my Flickr site here.

I owe many thanks to Ann-Christine for this week’s challenge topic. I used her challenge to get some more experience with a new camera, learn how to create a slideshow video in Lightroom Classic, and visit one of my favorite places in Fargo.

Last week, Patti’s ZigZag challenge wowed me with all of the interpretations I saw in everyone’s response posts. Next week, Sofia hosts. Be sure to follow her here so you don’t miss the challenge post on Saturday at noon Eastern time. If you’d like to join in the fun and respond to the weekly challenges, here are the instructions to get you started.

John Steiner