Welcome back to another look back to some of my favorite images from 10 years ago. This month is, you guessed it, April 2014 where I found myself making two trips: Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and the Old Mill in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
Garvan Woodland Gardens is a 210 acre botanical garden that contains some truly incredible flower displays. There is something in bloom year-round, but the main attraction is the tulips that bloom in April. Unfortunately, I had made my visit about a week after the tulips were at their peak, but the displays were still amazing. It didn’t take long before I found this group of bright yellow tulips that were being lit by the sun and looked to be glowing from the inside.
Just a few feet from the yellow tulips, I came across this group of purple-toned tulips. These tulips were a little more shaded from direct sunlight, so the colors were slightly more subdued, but they still seemed to have that internal glow.
About a week later, I made the trip to the Old Mill in North Little Rock. The Old Mill is famous for being in the opening scenes of the classic movie “Gone with the Wind.” It is a re-creation of an 1880’s water-powered grist mill, and it is believed to be the last remaining structure from the movie.
I had been to the Old Mill a couple of times in the past, but I had never managed to be there in the Spring when the flowers were blooming. It was just luck that I happened to go on this day when everything had to be at peak bloom. This image with the waterfalls flowing, the flowers in full color, and the tree limbs arching over the mill was one of the first images I made that day, and it is still one of my favorite images I’ve ever made.
And, what is a grist mill without a waterwheel? I had been wanting to photograph the waterwheel for quite some time while it was rotating, but every previous time I visited the Old Mill, the wheel was either not spinning because it had gotten broken somehow or it was rotating very, very slowly. I guess all the stars had aligned themselves just right for me because, this time, the wheel was moving pretty quickly allowing me to create this image.
