Lotus flowers and exotic water lilies

We visited Kenilworth Aquatic gardens on August 2nd early in the morning, before the heat of the day.  The lotus flowers were up to 5-6 feet high, mostly  white and pink.  There were lots of bugs around including bees, dragonflies and crawly insects.  Behind the Visitor's Center, there was also a small exhibit of exotic water lilies in lovely colors.

     Lotus

      Water lily

      The pond

     Water lily pads

     Hiding

     Painting the lotus

     Lotus leaf hat

     Beautiful Samoyed and pet friend

Camera club Honors for October

I had 3 winning photos in the Camera club Competition, 1 theme (abc123), and 2 advanced.  Strangely enough, I liked an osprey photo that didn't win anything the best!  I like how much action was happening and how two birds framed the third bird.

The theme was called Abc123.  A few hours before I sent in the pictures, I was talking to Jim and noticed that the drawer pulls on our old fashioned filing cabinet looked like the letter "i" if I rotated them 90 degrees. It won third place.

A fairly recent sunrise had a lovely red glow.  I think I made sure the land was cropped off the bottom of the photo, since a previous picture was similar.  3rd prize Advanced.

                       Warm Sunset 

While photographing some gorgeous water lilies, I noticed some water had collected on a lily pad in the shape of a heart, so I called it green heart and it won 1st place in the advanced category.

Water Lilies

Here's a few of the photos I took of a water lily display over the weekend.  The weather on Saturday was lovely and there was an overcast sky, perfect for flower photos.  

On sunny days, the shadows can be much more harsh, although I still like the photos because of the colors.

If you want to compare, you can look at some of my water lily photos on Flickr at 

www.flickr.com/photos/75311362@N08 in the flower album.  Here's an example.