I Never Met a Peony I Didn't Shoot

Oh yeah ... you guessed it. I took the super lens off to the formal gardens at the Experimental Farm to continue testing it. I wanted to see how flowers would look at f2.8 with the sharpest tool in the shed ...

And low and behold, the Peonies are still blooming ... I tried looking for the most interesting ones, since I'd shot all the dull stuff last time :-)


Before anyone comments on yet another shoot in terrible (glaring sun) light ... I have this lens for three days, so bite me. I take what I get.

I had to go back to the car to tighten the lens plate I'd stolen from my Tamron 180, and when I got back I ended up at the Columbine bed first. Still blooming, although the plants are clearly heading toward the end game ... I found this particular one simply stunning ...


Their tales ... er tails ... are always so interesting ...



A short distance away, the rose bushes are blooming quite profusely ... these are mainly native Rose bushes, and no the classic Tea Roses that are so high in maintenance. This particular flower has a visitor ...


Another pretty plant ...


And one that actually looks like a Tea Rose ... I don;t think it was, but them I'm not exactly qualified to make that statement, so who knows?


And then I found the daises ...


I wandered over to the Iris beds and was sad to see that all but a few plants were completely finished ... man, you gotta be on the ball to avoid missing them ...


There are some beds in the back with a mixture of plants I don't recognize ... like this pretty flower ...


Back through the roses again and I noticed one plant with truly gorgeous flowers on it ... the lighting is not great, but I kept this image anyway just because of the way the flowers look ... I want to remember these -- it's like they are lit from inside ...


Walked by the Foxglove again ...



Enough of all these pretenders ... where are the Peonies?

This next one looks a little untrimmed ... a kind of European vibe I'm thinking ...


And another bowl Peony soon to be ...


One of my favorites of the shoot ... if you look *really* carefully, you will find three insects. If you see the third, let me know in a comment ...


Ah yes ... the requisite back lit Peony ...


A pair in a bed nearby ...


And that's it ... but I did capture one more image there. It's June, and a lovely sunny Saturday. So what do we see every 5 minutes? A wedding party. I believe I saw five wedding parties come through the gardens for formals. The setups and equipment the photographers were using weren't rocking my world ... but what the heck, I wasn't paying either :-)


Having recently begun playing the end game, I look upon all these weddings with bittersweet thoughts ...