Ever since our visit in 2007 described in the next section, we had wanted to return to Callaway Gardens which is a huge conflict with the concept of budget travelers. Callaway is a major resort with an admission fee we consider high, lodging well above anything we would consider, and even rather high food prices. We discovered January and February had free admission, we could stay at the R. Shaefer Heard Campground on West Point Lake twenty some miles to the west, and with eating most of our meals outside the garden a visit was affordable.
A major design feature of the Garden is a long winding low speed entry that literally forces you to relax, unwind, and absorb the natural environment like these wild turkeys along the road. It may seem like they were unaware of us but I have yet to photograph turkeys that were not poised to run at a moments notice. This early in the season most of the trees were bare, flowers were scarce, the azaleas for which the garden is famous would not bloom for another month or so, and the rather gloomy and overcast I find great for mid day photography.
One of the primary reasons we were returning was the excellent show provided by their raptor rescue center. From several owls which are Lori's favorite, through several types of hawks, and on to one of natures garbage men the turkey vulture, this is a great show and an excellent way for me to capture these wonderful birds in a natural setting. I want to spend more time with birds on the fly which is one reason I have been upgrading my camera lenses, but capturing these types of images takes a lot of time, and patience, and luck in the field.
It is a real thrill to see these birds launch from a handler, fly past at knee height within touching distance, and land on another perch.
Nice trick but another handler baits the post which gets the whole show going. All of these wildlife shows are based on rewarding natural behavior until the animal learns to link the two. Sometimes there is a question of who trains who.
Turkey vultures are very fascinating as I described on the Skidaway Island page. They even learn to pickup trash reinforcing the anti-litter message.
Moving on to flowers or in this case berries I was just as surprised to see yellow holly berries as I was to discover orange raspberries at the Pacific Rim Bonsai Museum. The more we travel the more non traditional varieties of almost everything we see. It seem we all move so fast stereotypes are easier than actually looking.
Winter in the south is not always pleasant especially at these higher elevations so most of the flowers are inside. Since most of the year is very nice the walls here easily open.
This time of year the most wonderful part is that it is warm inside. It is also humid and bringing a cold camera inside causes condensation on the lens so I had to wander around for a while to allow it to warm up or it's like taking pictures in a fog.
There are also plants that would normally be outside in the warmer months jammed in everywhere. Every place you look is another flower, some variegated leaves similar to coleus, an orchid planted into one of the walls, and yes we do have bananas today.
Here is another variety of the "Bird of Paradise" flower.
Their butterfly house was also open and another warm spot to visit.
Finishing up are some critters. The green guys are a variety of poison dart frog. The brown parts on the plant are not dead leaves but a stick bug similar function to the preying mantis.
Later in our travels I will breakdown and pay the admission to photograph the azaleas in bloom.
Our first exposure to Callaway Gardens in western Georgia was a field trip organized by the photography seminar at Auburn University in eastern Alabama. It is amazing to see how the thousands of acres of worn out devastated cotton fields have been transformed into a large resort with extensive lakes and trails, a major golf course, a butterfly house, and luxury living in a country setting. It's difficult to get into the Callaway History on their site so here is the direct link to what is available bypassing the resort hard sell.
By far my favorite at Callaway is the free fly shows they have several times a day as part of being a raptor rescue center. You may also notice that Lori is very partial to owls so they get to be featured in our pictures. They have two rows of benches and fly the birds through the isles as well as directly overhead. The birds know where you are so please stay seated with hands and fingers down. It is permitted to look up but highly recommended to keep your mouth closed. Flying is hard work and there is no need to carry excess weight.
One of the more popular wedding locations is the Ida Carson Callaway Memorial Chapel shown here with a young lady getting her pre wedding photographs. From the inside the stained glass windows are beautiful but very large to make up for the shaded glen and consequently difficult to photograph in the cozy chapel.
This is a garden and this is a photography seminar, so here are some of the experiments with flowers up close and personal. The actual assignment was to find viewpoints that were different from the same-o same-o views. Also realize this is February in the cooler hill country. Some of the camellias were blooming but even the azaleas are not in full bloom until late March in this area. All of the flowers here were transplanted into beds from the greenhouse.
They also have the USDA sanctioned butterfly house with free flying exotic tropical butterflies in a heated conservatory. This feature has become increasingly popular in many botanical gardens and zoos but this was one of the early ones and the first we had seen.