Iris
I spent a few hours at the 24th annual Garden Fair, held at the State Arboretum of Virginia. In between thunderstorms this afternoon, I took the 10-minute drive over and am certainly glad I did.
Peppermint met a lot of friendly dogs while I browsed vendor row, checking out the plants and the various garden accents available there. In the end, I chose a beautiful hand-made bird bath and a bird house to bring home.
Interestingly, while I was off running errands this morning, my husband spotted the first Eastern Bluebird we’ve seen up here on the mountain. It perched on the railing of our deck, I hope checking out all of the bird-friendly aspects of our yard.
I plan to hang the bird house tomorrow, and if the Bluebird chooses to stay, he might find a comfortable home. Otherwise, I’m sure one of the many other residents will make use of it.
A variety of irises were in full bloom today, so as the thunderheads blossomed and the overcast took over, I spent some time taking macro shots with the Sony RX100. This is a wonderful camera for just such an outing. It fits comfortably in my pocket, and I could easily pull it out for some impromptu shots while holding Peppermint’s leash and pulling my little red wagon of purchases.
I shot in RAW and then was able to work with the images in Lightroom. It’s also handy for photographing the interior of the flowers as the small lens tucks right inside for this interesting view.
Tricia Booker Photography 
Love this, and how lucky for you to be able to enjoy such a wonderful gardening expo. Love the purple!
Thanks Emily! Not quite as challenging as birds but still fun 🙂
Like the angle of the close up.
Thank you Sally! It was fun to experiment today.
Pretty macro shot of the iris! I hope the bluebird decides to stay. We have not seen bluebirds for several years, although we have a house for them. We enjoyed visits from a beautiful Indigo Bunting this spring, but he moved on to his summer place within a few days.
I saw the bluebird again today and hung the birdhouse as well. Maybe he is going to hang around! Indigo buntings are beautiful. I don’t have them here but do see them during the summer bird surveys in the fields.
Beautiful purple!
Thank you so much!
This is an incredible photo. It makes me think of an Alice Walker quote I shared in a post some time ago: “it pisses God off of you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it!”
http://learnmoreeveryday.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/gods-favorite-color/
Wow, that quote is so perfect! There were white, yellow and purple irises blooming, and I was totally drawn to the purple. When I got home I had twice as many shots of them. Great blog post too! Thanks for sharing the link!
Gorgeous Tricia!
Thank you, Tina!
This is a super photo! We’ve been seeing bluebirds for a couple of weeks now. They like to perch on the tall weeds that fringe the farmers field. And there are swifts flying about constantly.