A Reminder

I know all of us who use Facebook from time to time have issues with them for various reasons. But any that I have had, thankfully, have been very few. Especially during this past year being able to still feel connected to family and friends who are, quite literally, all over the world, because of Facebook has far out weighed everything else. One of my favorite things about this platform is starting my day seeing what was one of my Facebook Memories. Yesterday morning it was this picture, which, according to Facebook, was my most liked picture in 2016. I had totally forgotten about this image and had to go back to my image files to find it and see what others I took that day. I had only really started trying to take macro images the year before. My peonies were in full bloom in the spring of 2016 and I thought they would be perfect subjects for some macro shots. This one is the best of those attempts that day. Finding this image again reminded me of having received a Lensbaby Velvet 56 lens for Christmas. This is a specialized lens which is designed for creative photography. It is a manual focus, and for that reason, it takes a bit of time and patience to get the desired picture and effect. Because of its wide aperture, the resulting image tends to have a bit of a painterly, soft look, especially when you set it for down near its widest apertures, allowing you to get as close as five inches from your subject. I have read that I can also use extension tubes with it, as I did with a different lens to capture today's image. I haven't tried that yet, but I definitely will after I have a bit more practice without using them. Now that the weather is improving and flowers are bursting into bloom, I plan to get out and work with this lens more often. So, thank you Facebook, for reminding me to get out and use it. The one below is my favorite image from yesterday's photo shoot in the neighboring woods.