placement
Of all the messages I've tried to convey in this video series and its introductory texts, one of the crucial ones is my observation that the people who buy and own ponds will spend lots of time enjoying their watershapes after it gets dark. The only way to make that happen, of course, is to include an effective in-pond lighting system to make the watershape's best features
As the process of installing this beautiful little pond moves toward its conclusion, we find as always that we have lots of smallish details to consider - including the important task of creating a great look with the waterfall's spillway. This step may not take the strength or persistence or grand vision of some of the project phases covered to date in this video series, but I can assure you it takes both care and finesse - especially
Earlier in this sequence of articles and videos, I mentioned how much I enjoy the fact that pond installation is an improvisational art form: You can roll through a design in your head and sketch it until your pencils are worn to nubs, but the reality is that working with boulders is a process of placement and on-site adjustment that ultimately brings a design vision to life. That's particularly true with waterfalls, which is why this single part of the series encompasses four videos and nearly 40 minutes of running time. And as you will notice, there are probably more
A surprising number of my clients come into the pond-buying process without having given any thought at all to how the watershape will look after the sun goes down. That probably has something to do with the fact that the big natural ponds they've encountered in their lifetimes have not benefited from any kind of illumination beyond the occasional pole-mounted floodlight. So they're in for a treat when we complete their pond and they watch it
Several months ago, a big idea crossed my mind and wouldn’t go away. For years now, I’ve been making videos about what I do as a pond designer and installer, and several of these recordings have appeared through WaterShapes EXTRA and WaterShapes.com in the past year or so. What if (I thought to myself), instead of covering things randomly, I switched over to a systematic approach and took the whole
In far too many cases, lighting in and around backyard swimming pools is an afterthought – and sometimes I get the impression that there’s not much thought involved at all. As I see it, our clients deserve better than an easy, one-size-fits-all approach, and that’s the main reason I developed the brief video presentation linked below: I wanted to give homeowners a bit of information that would help them understand both the importance of good lighting and get them ready to discuss a variety of available design solutions. As I suggest in the video, the old-style, under-the-diving-board placement of a 500-watt incandescent bulb should never
