The Primrose and the Pea

I'll start the post with the most successful pictures and end with the least. There are some pea flowers blooming in Discovery (particularly near the historic buildings). Happily, just as I'd hoped, I arrived soon enough after the rainfall that some of the flowers still had drops on them. Most of these flowers were quite low too the ground, which was where my new little tripod came in handy! Close up, I think these flowers have really interesting features.

I ended up really liking this next one, with the flower in focus and the buds on the stalk slightly out of focus. I think they provide an interesting counterpoint to the flower itself.

And now, a more classic view of fireweed, with the entirety of the stand faintly visible in the background. I tried a lot of different apertures for this - f/3, f/4.5, f/6.3, f/7.1, and f/8. The one I've posted here was f/6.3. I thought that this was the best at providing enough definition in the background to make out the fireweed without getting distracting. Admittedly, my instincts while shooting were that this would be the case. But when shooting digital, you might as well try it all!

The vetch flowers are already starting to look a bit motley, but some of them still look nice. I thought this closeup turned out acceptably well. I was trying to capture the sweep of the whole line of flowers behind those in the front; that didn't come out as clearly as I would have liked, although it is still somewhat visible.

Another, more successful attempt at photographing blackberry buds! The background is much better this time around. Unfortunately, I didn't get the buds quite as sharp as I should have, but they are acceptable at least.

Now, on to some of my only semi-successful photographs. These two are looking down on a fireweed stalk with different focus points. They're okay, but I'm thinking that they're just a bit busy.

That's all for now, folks. The meteorologists are telling me that the weather for the second half will be good. And I have some days off! So, assuming my sprained ankle heals in a timely fashion, you'll be seeing some new images shortly.