Flowers in January?

This past weekend I got a chance to hang out with a TON of other photographers. On Saturday I was with 50 other wedding and portrait photogs as it was time for our monthly get-together (check the archived posts). There's a ton of photos from that on Facebook so I'm not going to post them here. On Sunday I met up with a small group of enthusiasts that met up through DPReview, with whom I've gotten a chance to hang out with last summer at the Dulles Air and Space Museum. This time around we went to the Botanical Gardens in DC right next to the Capital Building. I wanted to share some of my favorites from the day. Also you'll be happy to know I found an excellent use for my Rayflash: as a macro ringlight! So on top of using it as a great fill-light for portraits, I'm now addicted to using it for flowers and other small details (wedding bouquets, shoes, rings, ect.). Now time for the quiz, can you guess what lenses these images were taken with? Some of these images might surprise you if I told you what lens I used, because only one of the lenses I used was designed as a macro. The answer is down at the bottom. Also the gallery with quite a few more from the day are on noahhayes.net (link)!

The two lenses used today were the 105 VR f/2.8 macro (obvious though...) and the 14-24 f/2.8!!!! That's right That lens focuses so close! The images I used the ultra-wide on were #3 and #5!

Goin' Bonkers for Bonzai

I was hanging out with two fellow photogs (Armin Defiesta and Peter Bang) the other day down in DC at the National Arboretum, and although it was a drizzly, overcast day, we still all had quite a bit of fun. After taking some shots out in the weather near the columns, we headed on into the Bonsai exhibit, which had some truly remarkable pieces of this amazing art form.

I noticed some flowers growing along the base of some of the columns. Those out of focus dark spots are Peter and Armin. This shot also goes to show why sometimes LiveView on a DSLR is a nice thing to have.

I have no idea what it says, but it sure looked important

The Bonsai lineup along one side of the building

Most of the flowers have yet to bloom, April showers bring May flowers!

I told you it was wet!

This little rock had all kinds of miniature buildings and boats all around it.

This was a VERY small house right under those grass like leaves near the bottom of the rock pictured above.

Peter and Armin rocking out with the 24-70 f/2.8L, Peter is also rocking a Boda lens bag!!!

Some cherry blossoms...so difficult to figure out what you want to get out of a picture like this...literally thousands of subject to chose from!

This was the only dead, or at least leafless Bonsai that I saw. It was right there when you walk in, kinda caught me by surprise.

Outside there were quite a few little fountains, this was a shot of water shooting out at 1/8000 of a second! What's crazy about that is that I still see motion blur!

This was the last Bonsai I saw of the day, I thought it was cool how it looked like a whole forest in a clay pot. All the other bonsai looked just like one mini-tree.

This was my favorite picture of the day for some reason, maybe its the stone cutout in the background..I don't know, I just love it.

Hope you enjoyed the photos. I look forward to spring, when all those flowers bloom!