Garden Splendor

I was off on Friday and after I got things done around the house I decided to take a little trip to Sotterly Plantation to work on playing with manual mode, exposure, and using my telephoto lens as a macro lens.

I spied this bunny statue sitting on bench next to the children's garden. It reminded me of Peter Rabbit and I just loved the weathered look on him. I shot this in manual mode, but the original picture was much darker. I edited the picture Photoshop Elements 6 to lighten and sharpen the image. I actually took a picture that was done in aperture priority, but prefered the underexposed image because the sunlight wasn't as harsh in this picture.

This is a picture a took trying to use my zoom lens as a macro. Not too bad, but I have a feeling that a true macro lens will need to be added to my list. The sun was really bright in the mid-afternoon, but it was the only free time I had so I had to do what I could. I think one thing that I normally come across when shooting in these conditions is that light or white colors will get blown out. This one actually turned out pretty decent, I can see detail on the inner petals although it is a soft focus.