Morning in Mercer Arboretum

[asergeev]

Went today morning to Mercer Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Humble, TX (area of north Houston). All pictures were taken with a flash, except one picture of speckled leaves.

Water lily in front of Visitor Center.


Blue larkspur(?).


Pink flower of lily family.


Orange daylily.


Some speckled leaves.


Violet daylily.


Yellow kangaroo paw.


Blue lily.


Coral bean.


Hot leaps sage.


Dayflower.


Purple coneflower.


Iris like flower near Lily Pond.


Crinum lily.


Pineapple guava.


Tiger beetle on a muddy trail.


Peacock ginger.


Lizard on a plant label.


Buddha belly plant.

[DigitalScape]

Alexey, you have some really good images there. Focus is tack sharp on all of them. Well done.

[terryturner]

These are wonderful Alexey. Were you using a ring flash or an off camera strobe. I'm also curious what f-stop you used.

THANKS!

Terry

[asergeev]

Originally Posted by terryturner

These are wonderful Alexey. Were you using a ring flash or an off camera strobe. I'm also curious what f-stop you used.

THANKS!

Terry

I used a ring flash Sigma for Nikon. Sometimes I take it to my left hand instead of putting on a lens. I used mostly f/32. For so small aperture, pictures originally are not very sharp because of diffraction, so they are considerably over-sharpened by a software. For a picture of a cone flower, I additionally used "dust reduction" filter to remove pollen.

[Shadow]

Great place, went there today myself. :) What lens are you using? Damn, you got close... :)

[jfoureyes]

Very nice series Alexey!

[LABirder]

Beautiful shots Alexey! Looks like you and Bruce saw the same lizard!

[sdenman]

Alexey all I can say is WOW. great set of photographs.

[ttusa]

Wow, beautiful colors, Alexey! That Beetle shot is amazing!

[asergeev]

Originally Posted by Shadow

Great place, went there today myself. :) What lens are you using? Damn, you got close... :)

I used a lens Sigma AF Super Wide 24mm 1:2.8 for large flowers and a lens Sigma 105mm f/2.8D DG Macro for smaller objects.

Originally Posted by LABirder

Beautiful shots Alexey! Looks like you and Bruce saw the same lizard!

I looked on a discussion of those brown lizards. I thought firstly that they may be horned toads. Would be glad if anybody bring them to College Station gardens, because they still have only small green ones.

[TimmyTheTag]

Gorgeous colors!!!