Free Mondays at Leu Gardens

Woke up this morning for free Mondays at Leu Gardens. I've not taken pictures in a while been busy with work so I figured it would be a good day to get out. The beginning of the month and all. Florida has some wonderful skies. I hear the best in the world when it comes to clouds and such. When out with the Pentas Ist DS and 135 f2.8 and 50 f2.0 both manual lenses.

Even though they are up to Lightroom 3 I am still learning Lightroom 1.  Today I found color sliders that let you tweak each color individually.  Pretty hand.  I used it to bring the blues and greens out on this picture.  The end product just pops.

I saw these vines as I walked in. It was the first time I had to park by the entrance as it seems the word is spreading about free Mondays and everyone wants to go to the Gardens to have a good time.  Its a great place to walk and get fresh air.  Many mothers bring their children here.

There was something so symmetrical about this tree when I saw it.  It's as if it was the star of the garden with nothing bigger around it to take away its limelight.

When I first started taking pictures I used to photography moss all the time.  Florida is full of it.

They have sections of sunflowers all over the garden with busy bees doing thier busy work.

I have not shot too much with my 135 2.8 manual lens.  Nothing special about it other than it was cheap and it has a weird bokeh.

This must be the flower of the year because every where I go i see cone flowers and I must say they are the best flowers to photography with their planet Saturn like design.

Funny what you can miss when you don't stop and look.  While I was photography the cone flowers, there to the left corner I foudn these hot spicy little daggers.

This must be the craziest looking pictures I have ever taken that didn't come out of photoshop.  This is that 135 2.8 lens shot at 2.8.  It produces some really radical FAR OUT BOKEH which really looks as if belongs with the Grateful Dead.

 This pictures reminds me of an alligator with a scaled back. 

Butterflies are a plenty at the Garden.  They are also hard to catch with a manual lens. 

Ah People, always a great subject to shoot as there is always a story to tell when anyone is photographed.  How does this story begin...They met on a park bench one day...

 Butterflies in motions. 

They have remodeled the house to look as it did in the 1940's.  I saw these spices on top of the refrigerator in the kitchen and remember my Granny making cakes with much of this stuff when I was kid.  Even food colors.  They aren't as big today as they were before but Granny Ruby use to make cakes with all kinds of crazy colors. 

These are what women use to wear.  Very stylish I think.

Another version of the previous pictures but in black and white.

As I sat for bit after the long walk around the Garden and the tour of the old house I took this last photograph.  Hope you enjoyed this months journey to Leu Gardens.

Image via Wikipedia