Flower Friday--of Hong Kong, But Not From

Nikon D700,  70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR lens @ 270mm, f/11, 1/320s, ISO 400. 

I was seriously jealous of the other guys at the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens: they had Nikon D3s's mounted on their Gitzo tripods with their Really Right Stuff ball heads and macro brackets, with a 105mm f/2.8 VR micro lens and 2x multiplier. At least, I think that's what he was using; I didn't really look that closely. Anyway, it made me want to go buy some of that stuff for a great deal from one of the millions of camera stores on the harbor. I found the 105mm lens from one for $750, but I wouldn't pay $300 for his $50 tripod, so he wouldn't sell me the $750 lens...Stingy Foreigner...

Anyway, I took through this fellow's viewfinder to see how he was framing his shot from about 6mm away from the flower. He had some cool folds of petal, backlit from the sun coming through the sky lights, and it looked pretty good. That's why I was jealous. Had I realized that there was a Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, I would have carried my tripod on the ferry across the harbor, slugged it up the mountain with me and spent all afternoon drooling on the other guys lenses as I crowded behind them to copy their images. Maybe I would have several days: this is the only place I've ever been where it's cooler in the greenhouse than it was outside!

So, I set out to make my own abstract images in the greenhouse. These were two of my favorites. It's black and white here, but there was very little color originally, anyway. I had carried only my 70-300mm as a great walking around lens for shooting everything from cityscapes to people. I racked it out and tried to hold still while making these pictures. they could have been better, but the security guard wouldn't let me sit on the planter walls--I was left leaning against the guys with the tripods 

These are both from the same frame, and this is the original, untouched from the camera.
Thanks for stopping in; it's good to be home.