The only flower to have bloomed in our garden are several of these wild things known as 'Jumping Jacks', or a host of other names. It's as close as I can get to some assurance that spring is coming! They are quite tiny, the bloom might be 1" in height.

Taken with the Voigtlander 125 macro. The wind was blowing rather stiffly so it is not as in focus and sharp as I know this lens can replicate; but it is a pretty flower in spite of my whining.

Lastly, I took a picture of of one of the statutes my wife loves to disperse around the garden. I stylized it a bit to soften the image. Not quite sure if that works for me or not. The gap in the fence boards is a bit distracting, though.

Go ahead and criticize the hell out of them if you want.

[Peter Zack]

Nice to see spring is coming and a good image of the flower. Great lens!
I like the statue but you're right, the background is a distraction (so is that one blown out leaf). If this was done with some leaves on the right side and a solid background, it would be a very good shot.

Just re-position it with more foliage and hang a backdrop (burgundy sheet?) over the fence.

[mtnbearhug]

Nice Shots Jeff....

Glad to see Spring is starting to show its colors for you.. The little flower is spot on.. great shot.....

I really like the soft look of the statue.... It would really be a SWEET shot if the plant was gone all together.. I like the fence in the background.. just not the plant.. But great shot either way..

Thanks for sharin.. Kim

[J.Scott]

Thank you both for your comments.

The background on the statute bothers me too. I like Peter's idea to smooth it out, maybe try the shot again with a dark burgundy sheet over the fence. And I agree with Kim to ditch the plant. While my wife may object to me slashing green, living things in the garden, I'll try a different angle.
A smoother background would be less distracting. It's probably not a great picture to begin with.

[roentarre]

Jeff. The bokeh turns out very pleasant, typical of voigtlander macro. The best thing about the shot is that soft dreamy look.

The 2nd shot looks beautiful! Not sure what you did with the shot but it turns out very pleasant.

[thomasjmpark]

Looks good to me Jeff I like the flower, its actually quite sharp against the odds of wind and so on, great colours. Spring/ summer is finally here

[J.Scott]

Thank you both. I took about 20 pics of that darn little flower before I settled on that one. I really need a sturdy tripod for macro work; propped up on a tool box with a chunk of Styrofoam supporting the lens is not the way I want to continue.

Basically, I removed quite a bit of detail from the statute image to soften it. I was just playing around in PS.