4.29.10 by moxie.marmalade

It’s summer now, right?  What, this is spring?  You could have fooled me.  It’s as if we jumped straight from winter into the sweltering days of summer with only a few enjoyable days in between.  The good news is that Mother Nature wasn’t fooled as many flowers are in bloom across our region.  While this beautiful calla lily may have been found in a bucket at the Penn Quarter Farmers Market, I saw many flowers as I toured the area this weekend.  Mount Vernon’s gardens were filled screaming kids and loads of colorful blooms.  The roses in the Bishop’s Garden at the National Cathedral weren’t as abundant as I’ve seen them, but there were some beauties there for sure.  And at Fort Reno Park (the highest natural elevation in DC) and the National Arboretum, buttercups covered the ground like a sea of gold.

While not necessary, the best way to photograph flowers is with a macro lens.  The photograph above was taken with a Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens, showing us the details of the calla lily and throwing the background out of focus for some beautiful bokeh.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go turn up my air conditioner and pour myself a sweaty glass of iced tea.  Let me know when the temperature is down to 75 degrees and the humidity is gone.