A visit to the National Botanic Garden of Wales

It was time for the annual visit to the National Botanic Garden of Wales, and thankfully the weather was on our side, as the last few times it has been a very wet affair! The National Botanic Garden of Wales is a botanical garden located in Llanarthney in the River Tywi valley, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It covers 568 acres of the beautiful Carmarthenshire countryside and features a range of themed gardens, a national nature reserve and the British Bird of Prey Centre. The garden’s centrepiece is the Great Glasshouse, designed by Lord Foster, which houses the largest collection of Mediterranean plants in the northern hemisphere. The garden is dedicated to the research and conservation of biodiversity, sustainability, lifelong learning and the enjoyment of visitors.

For such a great occasion, it was time to take my “real” cameras, and so I took along my Fujifilm X-T3 with the superb and trusty XC50-230mm lens, along with the Olympus E-PL8 with the equally impressive 14-42mm lens. With all my focal lengths covered, it was time to go an take photographs!

The highlight of the day is always the bird sanctuary, and so I will start with the images of birds. All images, from both cameras, were edited in Darktable 4.2.1.

Of course, there is a lot more to The National Botanic Garden of Wales, and I have this covered in these photographs below.

As you can see, although the weather was a bit grey, and as we were leaving, it did start to rain, we had a dry day for our photography. I am always amazed at how the X-T3 with the 50-230mm lens captures birds in flight, it is very good once it captures focus. My only fault was that I forgot to out the camera in “boost” mode, but still, I am happy with everything.

You may have noticed, these images are edited in Darktable. You know… There is something about Darktable that keeps calling me back to it. I love it, and I love its power. Just as I am releasing this blog, version 4.4 of Darktable has been released, and my next images will be edited in that. I have already quickly tested it, and I am very impressed!

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