Remember these?

They're still there. I'm still infatuated. This isn't the best shot of them, you'll have to scroll down for that, or look at the retrospective. This is just to remind you of those two buds in the front garden. They've emerged from the snow and frost. And I should remind you, these are tiny, about 1 cm long.

I don't know what screen you're looking at this on, but feel free to zoom in on the bud. I dare you. 

Same bud, from the other side.

When I'm editing these, the bud ends up being 11 cm long, so roughly 10x life size. I took a screen shot of it at about 3:1, and this is just a part of it. I love the texture, and want to pet it but I fear it will crumble to dust if I do. I wonder what purpose is served by the tiny hairs.

Eventually they will crumble to dust or wither away, or Linda will deadhead them. I'll be sad. These little guys have been great subjects. I've learned a lot about using the 100 mm macro, keeping my hands steady (these are all hand held) and some other camera tricks to get a good image.

Trying to compose both together in a pleasing shot is difficult but still a learning experience. I need to close down the aperture, which drives the shutter speed down. That means either really really steady hands (and not even a breath of wind), or increasing the ISO (risking noise) or setting up the tripod. Considering the best place to shoot both in the same image is about where the background lattice is, you can see the difficulty.

If you want to come and try your hand at shooting these buds, I'd be happy to host you. I'll even feed you a cup (or two, or three) of my high test coffee first. Time limited offer, but I'm not in control of the limits. The wind could blow them off any day. Don't wait too long if you want to do this.

In other news I was back on the treadmill this morning, churning away, learning to run faster. Early days yet, but it's going well. For whatever reason when I got to Repsol my tummy felt full of breakfast, and my brain was full of whirling thoughts. Good thing I was carrying a notebook. I started scribbling down some photo related thoughts, and next thing I knew, I'd filled up two full pages. There's a to do list and a completion date. Lots of things to check up on and make a decision about.

All that took about 45 minutes, with some short chats with people I know there. Such a friendly place. When I got up my tummy was happy, my brain felt lighter, and my feet were ready to run. Walked briskly on the track to warm up, a half hour with intervals on the treadmill, and another walk to cool down. For some reason trying to walk on the treadmill doesn't really work as a cool down. I need to feel the air moving past me.

And I think I'm ready to sign up for a race! Stay tuned to my registered in section of my blog roll.