{"id":11809,"date":"2024-04-03T20:42:39","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=11809"},"modified":"2024-04-04T18:59:14","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T18:59:14","slug":"a-moment-in-durham-the-ducks-were-pretty-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/04\/03\/a-moment-in-durham-the-ducks-were-pretty-good\/","title":{"rendered":"A moment in Durham: ‘The ducks were pretty good’"},"content":{"rendered":"
Two couples\u2014one young, one middle-aged\u2014 took aim at a pair of unsuspecting ducks. The creatures waddled in the grass, oblivious to the people towering overhead. Each of the humans carried their own photographic device. The four-person photo squad readied their iPhones and Sony cameras, hunched over and trained their lenses directly on the birds.<\/span><\/p>\n Click. <\/span><\/i>Picture(s) perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n On a Saturday morning in late March, the Sarah P. Duke Gardens had become an amateur photographer\u2019s paradise. Roaming across 55 acres of natural beauty, groups and individuals captured flora, fauna, and one another. The amateurs toted iPhones; those taking graduation and engagement photos brought in cameras and even lighting equipment. From waddling ducks to budding azaleas, no element of the spring day was too small to go unnoticed. \u201cOooh, gorgeous!\u201d called one young woman, peering down from the gazebo at the Terrace Gardens\u2019 vibrant array of multi-colored tulips.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Two second-time visitors, high schoolers Michael Penaskovic and Kirsten Cowley, had driven to the gardens from Chapel Hill to take photos. As she stood in front of the koi pond, camera dangling around her neck, Cowley shared that improving her photography skills was one of her main goals for 2024. The gardens provided \u201ca lot to do with the settings and lots of possibilities.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n