 | Description | Callaway Gardens is one of our favorite vacation getaways. The gardens are located about an hour southwest of Atlanta, or a seven-hour drive from Orlando. The gardens are particularly well known for their gorgeous displays of azaleas in the spring, and for the amazing Fantasy in Lights display of Christmas lights in November and December. I also enjoy photographing songbirds in Mr. Cason’s Vegetable Garden. There are daily Birds of Prey shows with easily photographable raptors. The Day Butterfly Center is fun for butterfly photography. We usually stay at the Mountain Creek Inn. We’ve also rented a cottage and enjoyed that very much. Use Azalea Watch to plan your spring trip! |
| Photography Advice | Take as many lenses as you can – long lenses for birds, macro for flowers, and wide-angle for landscapes. It’s all here! |
| When to Go | Year Round |
| Species Photographed (38) | American Goldfinch, American Robin, Bald Eagle, Black-and-white Warbler, Blue Grosbeak, Brown Thrasher, Canada Goose, Cardinal, Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren, Cedar Waxwing, Chipping Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Eastern Bluebird, Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Towhee, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Great Blue Heron, Great Horned Owl, Harris's Hawk, House Finch, Mallard, Northern Cardinal, Northern Flicker, Orchard Oriole, Peregrine Falcon, Purple Martin, Red-Eyed Vireo, Red-Tailed Hawk, Red-Winged Blackbird, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Song Sparrow, Summer Tanager, Tufted Titmouse, White-Breasted Nuthatch, White-Throated Sparrow, Yellow-Rumped Warbler |
| Website | http://www.callawaygardens.com/ |
| eBird | https://ebird.org/hotspot/L368011 |
| Google Map | Click here to view Google Map |
| Trail Map | None |
November 13, 2013 - We spent a weekend in north Georgia recently to capture some of the fall foliage, and I tucked my macro lens into my bag, looking forward to the opportunity to photograph some flowers as well. The fall blooms at Callaway Gardens are always fun to shoot. The gardens have large spectacular displays of mums, and […]
November 8, 2013 - Rich and I did a quick getaway trip to Callaway Gardens last weekend. Callaway Gardens is located in Georgia, about an hour southwest of Atlanta. My photography goal for the trip was fall leaves. While the peak color is past in places like New England or along the Great Smoky Mountains, the leaves are […]
December 14, 2012 - I thought it would be easy to photograph fall leaves. After all, there are tons of them lying around, right? Turns out they are not as photogenic as you might think. And a lot of them were already brown, which really distracted from the leaves that were brightly colored. So I took lots of attempts, […]
December 6, 2012 - I’m always surprised at camellia blooms because they remind me so much of my roses. The colors of this one are very delicate and pretty. Pale whites and pinks make me think of spring – but it’s December! I need to go find some poinsettias to play with. :)
December 5, 2012 - I saw these tall trees still with some fall color and thought it would be fun to photograph them from an ant’s perspective. So I threw myself on the ground (much to Rich’s surprise) and starting photographing up into the sky. The result has an interesting perspective. Tall trees make me feel really short!
December 4, 2012 - I recently photographed some tiny flowers. I don’t know what kind they were. Rich stood patiently as I crawled on the ground to get really close. I liked the images, but they seemed a little boring. So I played a little bit with the Color Efex Pro and Fractalius filters…
December 2, 2012 - I didn’t have a chance to get out and do photography this weekend, so I don’t have new Florida pictures to share. So I’ll keep sharing shots from my recent vacation to Callaway Gardens. Mum’s the word!
December 1, 2012 - In a few months, this Overlook Garden at Callaway Gardens will be a beautiful mass of azalea color. I hope to get back up there to photograph it. But now it is a wood with a little bit of fall color remaining, and the sun shone through the trees on me…I never noticed the change […]
November 30, 2012 - I was surprised to find the camellias blooming already in Georgia. The fresh delicate blooms contrasted so much with the fall colors and dead leaves that surround the bushes. Two bees were pollinating this bloom that I spotted high over my head. In the background are the bright yellow and orange leaves of a tree […]
November 29, 2012 - On our last trip to Callaway, I found a waterfall near the chapel that I really enjoyed photographing. It was my first real opportunity to experiment with slow shutter speeds to blur the water. I got some nice compliments on the pictures, and total strangers e-mailed me to ask me where in the world this […]
November 28, 2012 - A few days before Thanksgiving, Rich and I went up to Callaway Gardens. Callaway Gardens is about an hour south of Atlanta, which is a seven hour drive from Orlando. Each year they decorate the gardens with wonderful Christmas lights and music, called their “Fantasy in Lights” celebration. It’s so much fun! This was our […]
November 27, 2012 - The light levels were low at the Vegetable Garden most evenings when we were at Callaway Gardens. Plus it was wintertime, and there weren’t many birds around. I photographed a few Yellow-Rumped Warblers and a Junco, which is really common but not in Florida, and then my attention turned to other photogenic subjects. This clump […]
November 23, 2012 - Sometimes it’s fun to mix up your photography using filters and effects. I took a nice picture of a lake scene with fall colors earlier this week at Callaway Gardens. But it was a little boring…straight lines, nicely executed, but nothing special. I noticed the layers in the trees and the waves of the lake […]
November 22, 2012 - Rich and I just returned from a weekend trip to Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia. We’re very thankful that we had an opportunity for a few much-needed days away. And for our nice neighbors who took care of our cats while we were gone! We went to Callaway for their Fantasy in Lights display […]
August 31, 2011 - This is my last post about our Callaway Gardens vacation in Georgia this month. We had a great time photographing hummingbirds, songbirds, warblers, butterflies, and turtles at the beautiful gardens in Pine Mountain (about a hour southwest of Atlanta). But we stumbled upon my favorite photo from the whole trip rather unexpectedly. It was mid-day, […]
August 30, 2011 - The Beast was napping in his case when Rich and I were hiking in the Azalea Bowl at Callaway Gardens last week. I had the wide-angle lens on the camera, somewhat disappointed at the meager number of birds that we’d managed to find on our vacation. So I put on a warming filter and concentrated […]
August 29, 2011 - The Day Butterfly Center at Callaway Gardens is one of the biggest open-air butterfly centers in the country. Thousands of butterflies swirl around you as you walk through the conservatory, which features plenty of nectar plants and a waterfall. In the lobby, you can watch chrysalides turn into butterflies. Most of the butterflies are not […]
August 28, 2011 - My favorite place at Callaway Gardens is Mr. Cason’s Vegetable Garden. On our first visit, Rich wanted to check out the veges, and I thought I’d be totally bored. But it was quite the opposite. There are tons of birds in the garden. In fact, it is a certified Backyard Habitat. It’s not just vegetables, […]
August 27, 2011 - Rich’s favorite part of our Callaway Gardens vacations is seeing the many turtles in the lakes. The two best places to see turtles are in the lake right outside the Discovery Center, and at the little pavilion by Mockingbird Lake. We also saw them sunning themselves on a log in the middle of Hummingbird Lake […]
August 26, 2011 - Rich and I recently went up to Callaway Gardens for a few days. Callaway is about an hour southwest of Atlanta, so about a seven-hour drive from Orlando. The gardens are a great place to relax. We enjoy hiking during the day (for Rich) and photographing at sunrise and sunset (for me). Rich realized there’s […]
April 15, 2010 - Rich and I decided to take a week off this spring to go to Callaway Gardens to see the azaleas. With the cold winter and early spring rain, the bloom was supposed to be spectacular. It’s also very late – so the Callaway Azalea Watch was very helpful in planning our trip. The Mountain Creek […]
June 5, 2009 - Rich and I went to Callaway Gardens to celebrate our fifth anniversary. We had a great time and saw a lot of fun butterflies and birds.
November 27, 2008 - We went to Callaway Gardens to see the Fantasy in Lights display, but during the day, we had a great time walking around the gardens. There are so many birds at Callaway! The Callaway Birds of Prey show is fun. They pick three of about ten of their birds to display during each show, and […]
November 27, 2008 - Rich and I went to Callaway Gardens this week to see the Fantasy in Lights display. The gardens are decorated with Christmas-theme lights, complete with music and a “sleigh ride” (behind Snowflake, the imaginary reindeer!) What’s so amazing about the lights is that they are virtually hidden during the day. Nutcracker and Toy Soldiers Santa’s […]
August 25, 2008 - After two years of talking about it, Rich and I finally made it to Callaway Gardens…and thanks to Tropical Storm Fay, it rained the whole time we were there! But I saw my first hummingbirds, we were pleasantly surprised to run into some of our FL winter bird friends, and two of the butterflies in […]