Afton Villa Gardens II

With images still unprocessed from my March 15th photowalk at Afton Villa Gardens, I made another trip on March 29th. I'm so glad I went! In just two weeks the gardens have exploded in color. The wisteria, tulips, and azaleas were especially full and vibrant. Here are a few I thought you might enjoy.

Two mothers were out doing an Easter photoshoot with their darling girls.
I couldn't help getting my own shot. They were so adorbs!

Thanks again to Frank at FABirding for helping me with my blog crisis yesterday. All of my posts were still in English, but my dashboard and settings were in some kind of African language I'd never heard of! Note to self: Stay away from blog settings when tired.

Also a big thank you to my wonderful blog pals for sticking with me during this blogging transition I'm finding myself in. Not sure once a week blogging will cut it...we'll see how it goes. I will be making rounds the rest of the week, so if I haven't gotten to you yet, please be patient. :)

Fontainebleau, Part II

More of our day at Fontainebleau State Park.

Shallow waters with sandy beach.
I'm too afraid of the brain-eating amoebas to get in there.

Anhinga

How delighted I was to see a rabbit AND a fawn together. Awww!

Time to skedaddle!

Children playing on low-lying live oak branch

Linking to Skywatch Friday. Many thanks to the meme's host!

Flora of Avery Island

Spanish moss hanging from an enormous live oak tree, adorned by azaleas beneath.

Wisteria.
I experimented with different angles and backgrounds. Trees and sky in background.
All wisteria shots are from the same plant.

Pointing the camera at the sky gives a cooler color temperature and different perspective.

Bamboo as a backdrop gives a warmer look.

The fine leaves and bark made the photo look too harsh at f/8, so I applied a slight gaussian blue in Photoshop.
Is it too much? I'm trying to experiment more with processing.

The trees are filling out nicely already.
Breeding platforms for nesting egrets and herons. They use the trees also, but they seem to gravitate toward the platforms.

Does algae covered water count as flora? Great egret with breeding plumage and colors.

Many thanks to the wonderful hosts of

LINK

LINK

LINK