One of my favourite threads last year was Blossomville. Well, the blossom is not here in Worcester yet, but the Trees thread inspired me to try and start a similar one going around flowers. I thought by just saying "flowers" I would also include those in the Southern hemisphere whose blooms will be in a later part of the annual cycle.

I would have loved to have these guys coming through in my garden while there was snow around, but they missed by a couple of weeks.




Taken with the A700 and 50/1.7 with Minolta CL49-200 close-up filters ("two" and "one" respectively).

lovely pics birma, hope it,s not too long before we see these in bloom again

Nice pics Birma- I would have been awesome to have them coming through the snow. The weather rarely cooperates for me photographically . I have always wondered it those closeup filters worked well... It sure looks like they do. John

Thanks gio67 and John.

It really starts the new year for me when we have the first snowdrops. Lots of other bulbs are shooting up as well. Hedge and tree blossom, and then the bluebells are my favourites, but some weeks to wait yet .

I got up this morning to travel away for the week at work and there was snow on the ground - doh! Too dark and too much of a rush to take any shots. I got the CL49-200s after recommendations on the site here, and I found some on eBay in the UK. They are best on the 50mm (with its matching 49mm thread). I bought a step down ring to try them on my beercan but it was all a bit clumsy so I didn't pursue. I haven't tried the mini beer can yet.


Please everyone feel free to post more flower pictures here.

Nice shots with magnifying (close-up) lens. Your next stop would be a Macro lens.

Thanks Doc. The macro lens has to wait behind the UWA , but I'm keeping half an eye out for a second-hand 50/2.8 or a Tamron 90. Would it be worth getting some extension tubes for my existing 50/1.7? Are there any older manual focus macro lenses worth looking for? I've just been tempted into an old Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 135/3.5 (?) and I was wondering how that would do with a close-up filter. It should arrive at home before I do at the weekend.

Hi,

I don't have any flowers yet but I was able to shoot some colourful plants while the snow was melting this morning.

Thanks for starting this thread. Those are very nice close ups.

Yildiz

Thanks Yildiz. Nice rich colours in Instanbul and I like the snow crystals as well . I am looking forward to investigating the garden and the local hedgerows when I get home at the weekend to see what has appeared.

Those are getting going early Birma, aren't they? it's still very winterish there I would have thought...nice pix though, what are they? some type of LIlly, Tulip?
Greg

ps. The vivid red in those Holly look-alike berries always sort of startles me (I remeber them from last time), very photogenic though, nice one Yildiz.
Makes me wonder how plants survive and look so healthy when it's obvously quite cold, I'm fairly sure there are plants here that can die if it gets too cold.

Thanks Greg. The small white flowers are called Snowdrops which is I've always assumed is due to them being white and sometimes appearing while there is still snow around. I think the proper name is Galanthus (?). They are the first common bulbs to flower and they are relatively common in the fields, orchards and woods around here. They are hardy and shrug off frosts. These are in my garden, and were originally transplanted from my sister's garden about 12 miles away. They don't take any looking after and come up every year and sort of start off proceedings as it were . How are the flowers over with you?

I went out on the velocipede this arv to put the Lotto on and have a bit of a looksee at what was flowering on the way, actually it's not really plentiful at the moment with flowers oddly enough, I did find some but the light was at the wrong angle, in shade etc. so I'll have another look tomorrow.
Greg

I'll look forward to some colour from the warmer climes .

The viburnum here is past its best - but it adds some welcome colour, and it smells great.



Taken while testing the new cz .

Hi Birma,

Not bad at all for this season.. Nice and pinky white and smelling nice means heavenly. I have a couple of blooms that I saw this morning that might be worthy of shooting.. I had too many packages in my arms and the umbrella in my hand that made taking the camera out and photograph almost impossible.

I'll give them a go later.

Yildiz

I did a quick recce and found a few flowers, (it had to be quick as I received a subtle reminder about the back door that had been half stripped and not yet painted), sooo the photos are not marvellous, being done in a bit of a rush. But the upside is, there were some flowers around, I just had to look.
Greg

A700 KM28-75(D) Unknown flower on a vine in backyard.


A700 KM28-75(D) Unknown flower in backyard.


A700 KM28-75(D) Unknown Yellow flower/vine growing on back fence.

A couple more.
Greg

A700 KM28-75(D) Lily in front yard


A700 KM100-300APO(D) Unknown flower on tree near the Civic Theatre.