Snap Happy

Yesterday I visited the Huntington Botanical Gardens in Pasadena with Kelly and spent the whole glorious day experimenting with our new cameras. Kelly had her snazzy Nikon D80--complete with a borrowed macro lens--and I was breaking in my new yet already adored Nikon D40, the smaller, lighter, and cheaper (yay!) little sister to the D80. By the time the day was done, I'd taken a whopping 478 shots. That's more than I took on our entire weeklong honeymoon trip to Tahiti. But by the time I got home, downloaded them to the computer, and weeded through the blah and blurry shots, it was down to a much more manageable 255. You know how photographers say that you're lucky if you have a full day of shooting and end up with one really great shot? Well, I'm choosing to be encouraged by the fact that of those 478 pictures I ended up with not one but two shots I truly love. Ready to see them? Here you go. This little rose was up high on a bush, so I passed by it at first, thinking I couldn't get a good shot. Then Kelly came by and held it down for me so I could snap away happily. I got this one after changing my camera setting to "more vivid." I love the yellows it brought out in the foliage and the contrast it added to the bench. Thanks to Kelly's urging, I started a Flickr account to keep track of and share all these photos as I learn to use my camera. I haven't figured out yet how to add fancy slideshow links and whatnot to my blog, but if you're interested in seeing 30 or so of my other favorites from the day, visit my Flickr page here. I'll get around to adding a permanent Flickr link to my sidebar later. Enjoy!