up from within.

up from within., originally uploaded by mjkimmel.

Taken at Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.

I love these colors. I love the depth of field. I love the details.

I sat down at the bench located near the Monet garden to take a short rest. It is quite hard work to carry around camera + misc gear. The bending and stretching while balancing a camera to get the perfect angle is not exactly simple. When I first tried my close-up filters I was almost exasperated with the seemingly limited choices I had with positioning and depth of field. Combine that with not enough light or a lens that just isn't fast enough.

Frustrating. I took thousands of pictures learning how to shoot (excellent) close-ups. I was trying to learn how to shoot without having to take too many frames of the same image just to get the best focus. I began to have more concentration and a 'steadier' hand.

I still need much much much more practice. I am glad I decided to embrace experimenting with the old flash I had lying around. 'He' is now more than 10 years old, and I am thinking he has seen his day. (I played with the flash at waaay too young of an age, using it just to use it.... not understanding what I was doing.)