Yesterday my wife and I took a trip to Inniswood Gardens to photograph early blossoms along the garden paths. Inniswood is one of Columbus, Ohio’s metro parks.

We didn’t expect a crowd because it was Easter Sunday; however, we found lots of people taking pictures of flower beds and park features. When we left people were still coming through the front gate.

Spring Has Sprung

It takes just fourteen days of warmth for tulips to bloom and we found several flower beds with them. Some were fresh, but most were wilting. Since warmer temperatures have recently come early season wildflowers have just begun popping.

I turned my camera lens on Virginia bluebells, narcissus, trumpet daffodils, grape hyacinth, and a red-tail hawk in a nearby tree.

My Camera of Choice

On this trip, my camera of choice was the Pentax K-50, a mid-priced DSLR with a 16.2 mega-pixel sensor. It’s lightweight and a perfect companion for my Pentax 200mm prime-focus f/2.8 lens. It is not light, but it is one of the clearest lenses that Pentax makes. It is one of their professional series lenses.

If you want to save money on gear, go ahead, pick a mid-price camera body; but, don’t skimp on lenses. Good glass is worth every penny.

Here are Some Pictures from the Day

This hawk was high in a tree and I was at the limit of my tripod’s panning head. I could not move any closer. I took this shot with a 2x auto-focus teleconverter and a Sigma 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens.

The sky was heavily overcast. Lighting was soft and diffused, like you see here. My exposure was actually good and color fringing was very slight in one or two places. What little sun there was, unfortunately, was behind my subject.

I could have brightened the image in post processing; however, it might have enhanced color fringing. I left the exposure setting alone.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Next month we’ll return to Inniswood and see if we can catch late-spring blossoms. We’ll likely return again in late summer or early Autumn. My wife loved the gardens.

We shall return.