With the warmer weather of the past few weeks, my garden beds have put on a wonderful show of colour. Many of the bulbs that I have planted over the years have multiplied. I add a few new packages of tulips and daffodils each Fall so my collection is expanding. For little time spent and a modest amount of money, spring bulbs are the best!

Since gardening is only one of my pass-times, I’m afraid that I can’t keep up with the weeding and as summer progresses, it becomes more evident. Fortunately, the blossoms in my Spring gardens are able to hide the little weeds around them.

Although I own a macro lens, I tend to use my telephoto (Canon 100-400 mm.)  I find it works very well, especially on single blossoms, nicely blurring the background when I use  f 7.1 or even f 8. and “spot metering”.  Of course, I have to get back quite a distance from the flower and crouch at eye level with my subject but I still seem to capture enough detail on the petals as I am accustomed to hand-holding this stabilized lens. For  photos below and on the flower collection on Flickr, I did not use a tripod. With my macro 100 mm lens, a tripod is a must. It is always a good idea to use a tripod with any lens but I do not follow my own advice!

Below, I will share a few of the many garden photos that I’ve taken recently. To see more of them, please go to my Flickr site.  Just look to the right-hand side of this page and click on one of the flowers. My Flickr site also has many other nature pictures that I have taken in past years. I hope you enjoy them!