A Rainy Day at the Biltmore Conservatory, Gardens, & Grounds in Asheville, North Carolina (on Film)
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I had been looking forward to visiting the largest house in America since my best friend, Lauren, gave me a ring from her visit in 2013. In the fall, my friend Melissa, our moms, and I planned a trip to Asheville, North Carolina, to visit the Biltmore House & Conservatory.
The Biltmore house is a beautiful sight to see, but the conservatory and gardens occupied most of my time in Asheville. The massive conservatory is filled with tropical plants, flowers, trees, and succulents, a nice escape from the chilly weather outside.
Greenhouses have always had a special place in my heart. (It’s like a more ethical form of a zoo) Walking through them can be a bit overwhelming. There are leaves dangling over you, overlapping, reaching in different directions. My goal was to create simple portraits of the plants within the greenhouse, highlighting texture, color, and scale. Below are twelve of my favorite images from my trip to the Biltmore Conservatory, Gardens, and Grounds, all created with my medium format camera, a Hasselblad 500 C/M.
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My friend Melissa is not only a beautiful model but also a great indicator of scale! This view highlights the verticality of the plants, overlapping in a dense manor. The masonry ground and garden beds were a nice contrast in color and texture to the organic, green life filling the space.
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I love how tropical plants trickle light down to the ground. Reaching leaves catch light in all directions while plants lower to the ground are much more dense. From this point of view, I call attention to the leaf shapes and shadows as the frame is filled with a variety of plants.
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Two types of pink plants pop against the sweeping green foliage. The waxy petals reflect light more than traditional leaves, creating a focal point in color, light, and texture.
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The same waxy petals catch my eye, but this time in red, reaching above their neighbors.
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A frame filled with plants from edge to edge, showing a perspective we usually don’t see. Looking down at these leaves offers appreciation for subtle changes in leaf shape and extra attention to the differences in the leaf veins across different species.
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This plant, with its strong contrast in color and pattern, grabs all of the attention from the darker green leaves below it.
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Outside the conservatory, there are manicured gardens. In October, there were flowers of all colors and sizes still in bloom!
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Two bees being bees on a yellow dahlia in the gardens outside the conservatory at the Biltmore.
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The landscape architect meticulously designed this garden, giving us moments where texture and color meet and create beautiful contrasting forms.
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Walking through the grounds in the fall is so magical. The leaves were changing colors, reflecting off of the water. The walk was peaceful and quiet until we saw a black bear sitting in some bamboo and all survival instinct left my body and after I made I contact with it, I pushed Melissa out of my way and ran away. (oops)
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A portrait of me by Melissa! It is a rare opportunity to create portraits of myself with my Hasselblad. Since it is an entirely manual camera, it takes a lot of patience from me and my human tripod to set up the image so I am very grateful when I am gifted with one. I am not sure if the light spots on my face are from the sun or chemicals during processing, but I think they add that special touch that only film can give.
Thank you for taking the time to look at the images and read about a day spent at the Biltmore Conservatory, Gardens, & Grounds!
Each image was created with a Hasselblad 500 C/M on Kodak color 120mm film. The film was processed and scanned by Pro Camera in Charlottesville, Virginia.