I admit that I am not much of a ‘flower’ guy.  I send flowers on anniversaries and special occasions but otherwise I really don’t know what I’m looking at.

Now that I’ve confessed my flower ignorance, you might think that its strange that I visited the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco.  On the contrary, I jumped at the opportunity to see one of the most important places in the country, according to people in the flower community. I wanted to see what the excitement was about and hopefully shoot it, but I have yet another confession. I have a Canon 100 mm f/ 2.8 macro lens that I wanted to put through its paces.  What I ended up with really (pleasantly) surprised me!

And some of the shots downright amazed me…

This shot makes me think of birds, perhaps birds on an alien planet.  Should I title this shot ‘A Flock of Flowers’?

Are these flowers or insects?

Colors and shapes were everywhere. You could literally raise your camera and shot in any direction. The 100mm Macro really made this as simple as point and shoot.

There were so many shots in such a small space that the challenge became isolating what you wanted to shoot from the very colorful, yet distracting, background. This one is one of my favorites since the sun was just parting the San Francisco clouds and starting to reflect on the leaf.

With the macro, you really could separate a branch from the background…

…or a single flower from a bunch.

These flower people could be on to something! If you get the chance, you really owe it to yourself to shoot the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco.

And one last confession, my wife took this shot! Way to go Carole! Now put my camera down!