Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens

 

Pictures from July/August visits to the Jardins, which we have visited and I have photographed for the past 20 years, but the first time I brought film cameras with me to capture the sights.  In this case, the cameras were my Hasselblad 500 CM, and two Nikons, the always awesome F4 and an FG-20 that I bought on Ebay for a song and works flawlessly, both with nifty-fifty lenses, as this was before I scored Voigtlander glass for the Nikons. (BTW here is a review of the FG-20 by someone who has more than 30 years with them, he has two of them.)

This was posted from 33,000 feet, thanks to Air Canada Wifi, on flight AC311, YUL>YVR.

A little about the Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens:

This is a spot we have been visiting for more than two decades on our annual summer pilgrimage to the Bas St-Laurent and Gaspésie regions.  The cottage we rent annually is past the Bas St-Laurent in the Gaspésie region, but both regions have been our summer playground for 25 years.

From Parks Canada's National Historic Site Designation, some details on the Jardins: created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, the gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. On the grounds of a summer home given to her by her uncle, George Stephen, founder of the Canadian Pacific Railway and Canada's leading entrepreneur of the 19th century. Originally a fishing lodge, Mrs. Reford created the gardens from a rough landscape, taking full advantage of the site's favourable microclimate and its sublime views. The site now includes specialized gardens, winding paths, an allée royale and a variety of flower beds arranged in an informal manner. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford's beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Note: all photos in this posting are unedited, these are the scanned files as sent to me by Canadian Film Lab.

Photos using the Hasselblad, Planar 1:2.8 80mm lens, and Kodak Ektar 100 film.

 

More Ektar 100, this time in 35mm, on the Nikon FG-20:

Same camera but with Lomography 100; I like how the colours really pop:

And, true to form, I did shoot some black and white, here are some using the Nikon F4 on Kosmo Foto Mono 100: 

On the same film stock, here is the view from the cottage, looking north-east towards the neighbours:

...and finally, the region is famous for its spectacular sunsets,  I have thousands of digital photos of sunsets, but this was the first year I captured the setting sun on film:

Upcoming posts will include photos from the garden at home (which don't compare to Métis but was fun to shoot nonetheless) and my return to developing my own film for the first time in 44 years.

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Previous Posts:

Ottawa, at Night, in Winter, on Cinestill 800T

Supply Ship Visit to Remote Québec (and Labrador) Villages

Mamiya RB67, Egypt and Mount Sinai

Paris: One week, one camera, one lens, and whole lot of film

Nikon F4 (F4S)

Nikon F4, part 2: Fall Colours

Classic folding cameras capture Thanksgiving in Upstate NY

San Diego, February 2023, Nikon F4, Tri-X

Washington DC, Feb 2023

Voigtländer Perkeo 1

Voigtländer Vito II

The beginning of a blog...