I love taking pictures of flowers.  This love affair started when I was in college and was taking two tutorials:  one in botany; the other in photography.  It was amazing how the two courses often intersected.  Some of my fondest memories during my last semester of my senior year were taking pictures at the local nature center and then using the pictures to help me identify them for my botany class.

One day last August, I put my tripod, macro lenses, and an assortment of cameras into the rather small trunk of my little green Miata and drove over to the local gardens.  It was a beautiful day; just one of those days when the top definitely had to down on my little convertible.

I often go to these gardens and sometimes the light is right and the flowers are in perfect bloom.  Other days, the light is too contrasty and it looks like the flowers have been past their peak for a week.  The adventure is not knowing what it's going to be like on a particular day.  The drought conditions last summer also were a concern; I wondered if I had missed the colorful display.

I was so pleased at what I found:

I was enchanted by the beautiful roses around this statue of a young girl

WD8A8406 I was on my way out.  The sky had clouded up, but that was actually great lighting for the Lily pad.

Original waterlily I was still on my way out and caught a glimpse of this red, red rose and the thorns close by.

Red, red rose with a different crop So, it turned out to be a great adventure and one of my favorite photo-shoots of 2012.  It was a beautiful day and the pictures were exactly what I had in mind when I pointed my camera and pressed the shutter.