These images were taken in the autumns of 2004 and 2006. The first foray was aimed at capturing seasonal color and color contrasted against the shade; those shots were taken about midday. The 2006 frames were taken in late afternoon to exploit the brilliant highlighting opportunities available through backlighting. Hopefully, you'll be able to notice the difference of the two shoots in the album. The last frame I took the evening of the 2006 shoot, my favorite, is the last one in the album ... and the one that I chose to use on the album cover. It's the one of the tree of orange leaves framed by the tall, dark-shadowed tree trunks along the path leading to the park's south entrance along Southern Avenue. This frame can never be duplicated; in 2007, one of the trees captured in that frame was razed, a victim of disease.

Most of these images -- the ones leading off the album -- were taken shortly before noon on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2005, after a rare, picture-postcard snowfall ... one in which temperatures were warm enough for snow to stick to the tree branches yet cold enough not to melt. The sky was a solid, overcast gray, which is mentioned to draw attention to how those particular images -- though they might appear to be monotones (black and white) -- were captured in color. As evidence, check out the photographs of the stoplights at Pleasant Run and Pagoda drives ... and the green playground equipment at the south end of the park. Images appearing later in the album were taken on different dates. The other overcast-day photos were taken Feb. 5, 2006. The ones with blue sky and sharp color were taken on a sunshiny, but bitterly cold, Christmas Eve, 2004. The macro shots at the very end, including the finale of the iced-over baby roses at the end of the album, were taken on Dec. 16, 2007.

Garfield Park offers ample harbingers of spring's arrival. Whether it's the cherry blossom, flowering dogwood or red bud tree blooms sprinkled throughout the park; the seasonal bulb arrangement in the Sunken Garden; or simply the return migration of people to the park and its facilities, the signs of spring are all over Garfield Park. The conservatory also provides two popular annual floral shows each new season -- the spring bulb show and the orchid show.

This album contains representative images of floral and foliage arrangements in the Sunken Garden from summer 2004 to the present.

In the week before the Fourth of July every year, the Friends of Garfield Park, Indy Parks and several other sponsors host a celebration of the birth of our country with an evening of community patriotism, music and entertainment, and fireworks at the MacAllister Center for Performing Arts in Garfield Park. The celebration is called "America, We Remember." In 2004, when "America, We Remember" was observed on a Tuesday night, featured guests were former Indiana Pacer basketball player Darnell Hillman, the Wright Brothers Band and the Indianapolis 500 Gordon Pipers, who have been a fixture at the Indianapolis 500 Race and throughout the Midwest since 1962. P.E. MacAllister, chairman of MacAllister Machinery Co. and chairman of the board of Friends of Garfield Park, addresses the assembled crowd each year. It is MacAllister for whom the Garfield Park amphitheater is named. The large mural of Old Glory hanging at the back of the stage was the product of a paint project, supervised by IndyParks senior program coordinator Chris Smock, of youths attending summer camp at Ellenberger Park in 2004. It remained on the MacAllister stage through the summer that year.

For the 2006 rendition of "America, We Remember," observed on a Thursday night, the Gordon Pipers returned, joining the Indianapolis Chamber Choir and Indianapolis' own Carl Storie Band. The Chamber Choir, conducted by the 17-piece unit's founder, Thomas Akins, performed such patriotic numbers as "Strike Up the Band," "America, the Beautiful," "Battle Hymn of the Republic," "America," an American Revolutionary War medley, three Civil War songs, and "God Bless the USA" (the Lee Greenwood country/pop hit).

In the summer of 2004, the Friends of Garfield Park sponsored a series of free rock concerts at the MacAllister Center of the Performing Arts. One of the acts in the series was local performer Ann McWilliams, who played a spirited set in front of her electric band; the band Middletown opened for her. Also to perform in other shows for the series that summer were Puppies and Sindacato; Orquesta Son; and Cathy Morris with Collage. On the stage behind McWilliams and her band was a huge mural painted in a patriotic theme by youngsters who had attended a summer camp at Ellenberger Park. While McWilliams and her band performed on stage, spectators were invited to stroll to an open area behind the amphitheater seats to contribute to a new mural -- titled "Music" -- that was to replace the patriotic-themed mural the following month. Chris Smock, senior program coordinator for Indy Parks Arts Services, oversaw the mural project. Apparently there were not enough people to contribute their art talent to the mural; it never was displayed on the MacAllister stage.

As part of the Friends of Garfield Park "Music in the Garden" series, electric jazz violinist Cathy Morris performed in the Sunken Garden for an evening show. She and her band were camped on the overlook adjacent to the conservatory, performing to an audience seated on lawn chairs in the garden and fountain area below. Consequently, she was staring directly into the setting sun. After four numbers, she finally submitted to the bright rays and donned a pair of sunglass offered to her, as I remember, from someone in the audience. She has come back as a featured artist in each of the following summers as part of the "Music in the Garden" series.