Patterns in petals

It was a sunny day today. Chilly, but sunny...

My camera insisted on joining me for a walk. I was searching for early spring flowers, so I had both the macro lens and the macro extender mounted. Rather than succumbing to the desire to get a more powerful macro lens last year, I added the Life-Size Converter EF to my 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro. At some point in the future I may still decide I want a more powerful macro lens, but for now this combination is working for me.

For those who are interested, here's the description of the converter:

"Unlike a conventional extension tube, the Life-Size Converter EF has a 4-element optical design that acts like a tele-extender, allowing magnifications from 0.26x to 1x while increasing the working distance from the front of the lens to the subject."

I headed to The Stevens-Coolidge Place, hoping for some early season flowers. They have some wonderful gardens that I visited last summer and fall; it was time to see what bits of color have cropped up so far this season.

As I expected the gardens were showing early green growth, but as for color? There were some tiny blue flowers in a few sections. The winning color of the day came from crocus popping up in a field behind the gardens. Fabulous beauty in small things...







More photos can be seen in the gallery Patterns in petals. I'm sure I'll be adding to this gallery as more petals emerge. As with all galleries that I plan to add to, it is set up so the newest photos will always be at the beginning of the gallery.