Moody Nature Photography in Descanso Gardens - Los Angeles March 2025
One of the first locations I found online that mentioned cherry blossoms in Los Angeles was the Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge. At the time of writing this, the Descanso Gardens is free to visit on the third Tuesday of every month.
It was my first time visiting the Descanso Gardens and I stayed until late in the evening (almost until closing). Unfortunately, the cherry blossoms had nearly finished blooming, but I still wanted to make the most of my trip and just take some nice nature photos around the garden.
All images were captured on my Sony a7R III and with the Sigma prime lenses 35mm f/1.4 DG DN ART prime lens and 85 mm f/1.4 DG DN ART. The photos were edited in Adobe Lightroom Classic.
The Japanese Garden in Descanso Gardens
When I entered, I first stumbled across the Japanese Garden near the entrance. According to their site, the plants are all native to Asia and the Japanese Garden was designed by Los Angeles architect Eijiro Nunokawa.
Possibly because it was Free Tuesday, the garden seemed pretty crowded throughout the day. But I managed to get some images around the spot and I would say it was my favorite location in the garden.
I’d say the best part of the Japanese Garden were the small shrines and the fish pond. I found that the fish were hard to photograph because of their spontaneous movement and they would swim to spots that I would not be able to reach with my Sigma 85mm lens.
But I love the different colors of the fish and managed to capture a few shots that I’m happy with.
Detailed Nature Photography of Plants
I didn’t have a specific path I wanted to follow during my visit. The Descanso Gardens has a lot of helpful signs that will point you to certain attractions, but I preferred to just wander around and stop if something caught my eye.
Speaking of which, I came across a plant that had sunlight spilled onto parts of the leaves. I loved the contrast just straight out of camera and took a close-up image. I also thought it might be nice to edit the photos in two ways: one capturing the vibrant colors and one with a moodier and less saturated tone. You can let me know which one you prefer.
Along these lines, I wanted to capture more zoomed-in, detailed images of the plants and trees in the garden. I came across an interesting plant next to two trees along the path.
For the leaves, I wanted to keep it at a really low aperture of 2.2 just because I thought the compression would look nice paired with the 85mm lens. I bumped up the aperture much higher for the photo of the two trees since it’s a lot more dimensional and I wanted to get the tree in front as sharp as possible, but still create some depth between the two trees.
Vibrant Flower Photography in the Gardens
Another one of my favorite spots that I came across was a pink flower that was only slightly illuminated by the sunlight. In editing, I really wanted to highlight the contrast in the luminance so I played around with masking in order to really emphasize the highlights and shadows.
Sustainability at Descanso Gardens
From their website, I learned that the team behind Descanso Gardens are active in sustainability efforts with initiatives such as their Oak Restoration project, their Lake Habitat Restoration Project, water recycling, and more.
As I have started becoming more interested in sustainability and incorporating that into my photography, it’s great to explore a botanical garden that takes care of the biodiversity in the facility.
Final Words
While I wasn’t able to photograph cherry blossoms, I’m glad I made the trip to the Descanso Gardens because I had the opportunity to capture some beautiful plants and explore a new destination.
For these images, overall I wanted to capture a more moody and desaturated vibe. I’ve mainly associated moody images looking great in street photography, but I wanted to try and experiment with this aesthetic in nature photography.
I wish I had brought my Sony 70-200mm GM lens so I could capture even more detailed shots. But I think that having a prime lens with a wide aperture was helpful in getting some of the images that I was looking for.
