A decade ago Brian Ross read a magazine article that described Allerton and McBryde gardens as a "living encyclopedia" of tropical plants and trees from around the world, many of them rare and endangered. Intrigued, the professional photographer and documentary filmmaker set aside a day to visit, figuring it would yield worthwhile pictures.

"When I walked through the gardens, I was enchanted," Ross said. "I started shooting beautiful orchids, heliconia, hibiscus and many other exotic flowers I hadn’t seen before. The gardens were the antithesis of urban yet without the dangers of exploring wild, rugged, less accessible natural places."

He walked away with hundreds of images that day, and he’s been back many times since then.

Covering 280 adjacent acres in lush Lawai Valley on Kauai’s South Shore, Allerton and McBryde are two of the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s five gardens. Ross owns Photo Safari Hawaii, which provides "photo ecotours" throughout the islands. Launched in April, the company’s newest offering for shutterbugs is "A Stroll in Queen Emma’s Valley."

The tour’s name refers to the wife of King Kamehameha IV, who once owned this land. Historians believe it was an important Hawaiian settlement in ancient times. The queen sold the property in 1886 to Judge Duncan McBryde, whose McBryde Sugar Co. cultivated sugar there from 1896 to 1960.

In 1938, McBryde sold the ocean side of his property to Robert Allerton, a Chicago businessman who had made a fortune in livestock, banking and real estate. Allerton was one of the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s five founding trustees.

During a four-hour visit, tour-goers fine-tune their photography skills while learning about native flora and Hawaiian history and culture. "The pace is relaxed, so they can contemplate nature in all its forms and expressions," Ross said. "The photographic possibilities are dramatic, diverse, endless."

Most of Photo Safari Hawaii’s guides have led workshops in national parks around the world for companies such as Canon and National Geographic. In McBryde Garden they point out the akia, whose narcotic leaves, branches and berries were beaten, mixed with chum and used to daze fish, making them easy to catch.

Participants also learn that the loulu is the only palm tree native to Hawaii. "People mistakenly think the coconut palm is native," Ross said. "It actually was one of the 24 ‘canoe plants’ that the early Polynesian voyagers brought to the islands for food, tools, medicine, clothing and other basic needs."

Of special note in Allerton Garden is the lovely sacred lotus. Many parts are edible, including the rhizomes, young leaves, flowers and seeds.

Guides challenge the group with exercises that spark creativity, hone technical skills and increase awareness of basic elements of photography — contrast, composition and, first and foremost, qualities of light.

According to Ross, the word "photograph" comes from the Greek words "photo," meaning "light," and "graph," meaning "to write." To compose images, tour participants learn how to "write" with light and the myriad hues and patterns of nature.

"Whether you’re shooting a close-up of a little flower or a wide shot of a big Moreton Bay fig tree, the main concerns are what the lighting is like and how you can best use it," Ross said. "With tradewinds blowing from 20 to 35 miles per hour in Lawai Valley on most days — pushing the clouds away or in front of the sun — the light conditions are always changing."

Textures, shapes and shadows shift along with the light; a scene that exists one moment might look entirely different the next. As the amateur photographers focus on a subject, the clicks of their cameras are the only sounds that break the quiet in the gardens. It’s part of the process that Ross calls "visual meditation."

"Nature is very photogenic and cooperative," Ross said. "On our tour, even guests who’ve never picked up a camera before can walk away with some truly amazing images."

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.