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This is one place that is great to come to in the Spring/Early Summer. This park attracts lots of people from the surrounding office buildings and people from the near by condos walking their dogs. There is a little fake creek running down the middle, and all around this creek and the outside are flower gardens.

These gardens are kept in beautiful condition by a crew of volunteers. A person or group of people are assigned to each flower bed section. I was talking to one woman there recently that said there was a waiting list. How about that. A waiting list of people wanting to work for free.

So this tends to be a spot that I can come to several times a week even, and just walk around, and take some pictures. It’s amazing how comeing back just a day or two later and I will see new flowers that strike me that didn’t the day before.

So, if you live or work in St.Paul, I would suggest you stop by some day that you look outside and wish you were anywhere but inside. It will just take a few minutes.

 

I had the girls help me. Their favorite thing is to get the spray bottle and spray everything in the backyard, except the flowers I am trying to photograph. It had rained earlier in the day, but we needed to add a bit of water by the time I took these in the early evening.

 

Once again, I am taking these with my Nikon 50mm f/1.8. I love the bookah that I get from that lens. I can get the focus better with this lens too. I am not convinced that my Tamron 17-50 focuses properly. I am looking at sending it in. So, it probably means that I will be using the niffty 50 for most of my pictures after sending the Tamron in. But that’s ok. It is sometimes a little too big when taking pictures of the kids, I have to back up further than I want to, but I still like the pictures I get from it of them.

 

These two were the reason I picked up a DSLR in the first place, so it is good that I am getting back to taking pictures of them. I have been trying to concentrate on getting portrait pictures for a new portfolio that I haven’t taken¬†many pictures of my kids lately. But now that it is nice out again, we will go for¬†more walks and hikes, which will present more¬†oportunities for pictures than just the sidewalk in front of our house.

I currently have this one as my background at work:

This was growing in my grass in the front yard. I take lots of pictures from my yard, or the neighbors when I go out for walks by myself or with the girls. It is hard to get landscapes in the south end of Minneapolis, but flowers… we got plenty.

I am also happy with the 50mm f1.8 I got. I wasn’t sure if I would like it, not being able to auto focus. I am getting better at it, having finally adjusted the diopter on my camera correctly for me. I especially love the bokeh that I can get with it when I take pictures of flowers.