Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: cluster

Did you know that there are communities that have such beautiful gardens that they organize actual tours to visit them? Steve and I went on such a tour in the lovely town of Ashland, Oregon, and my, oh my, did we have a wonderful day! This picture was taken at the end of a long day of photography and I loved the richness of this colorful Marigold!

(+4 images in notes to see larger versions) The joy of a macro lens is the ability to bring into focus the ridiculously tiny things that all of us usually don't--or can't--see. This collage shows a wonderful example. I found tiny orange specks on the underside of some branches and immediately got excited because the edges were white. However, when I looked through my macro lens, I whooped in delight to see that the edges were so fuzzy! There were thousands of these tiny little fungi! (By the way, I'm not 100% certain these aren't lichen...if you know one way or the other, please let me know so I can identify them properly.) :) I was actually forced to create a collage to show these because they are so very, very small. About the size of the head of a pin! At first I was unhappy that I couldn't get a larger image, but after I created the collage, I was delighted because I can show lots of them. Aren't they wonderful? To me they look like tasty little orange tarts with some sort of special spun meringue edging. YUMMY! :D

Back in 2013, I bought a few Zinnias for our front porch, and I had a lot of fun taking pictures of them as they bloomed. I enjoyed playing with fun macro images, and this one shows the fine fuzz along the edge of every petal! Super cool, don't you think? :)

A couple of years ago, Steve and I went on a garden tour down in Ashland, Oregon. What a day...so many gardens, so many flowers and lovely plants! By day's end my brain was mush, but what FUN! This was a picture I captured at one of the last gardens we visited...thanks to Fizgig and also my friend Karen Forsythe for the ID, these are called Jupiter's Beard or Red Valerian, aka Centranthus ruber. You guys are awesome!! :)