Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/350 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — full exif & map
Rich Colors
In between snapping pictures of the great blue heron yesterday, I paused to take a picture of some potted flowers. The result is a deliciously rich set of colors that can't really be replicated properly on the web.
This image is right out Lightroom, with all settings at their default.
The saturation may look unnaturally vivid as if it's been boosted in post
processing, but believe me, the colors are so rich to start with I worried
that something might explode if I touched the saturation. 
I'm wondering how this might be as a desktop background.... Hmmm.....
Also while there, I took a shot of the canal facing east, from a similar position as seen during the cherry-blossom seasons, in shots taken during the day and night. It's not a spectacular image, but I thought some might like to see the comparison.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/640 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — full exif & map
Kyoto Biwako Canal in Okazaki, Kyoto, Japan
By the way, for further reference, the tree in the foreground of this shot is one of those featured on the 10 Gallons of Blossoms on a 5-Gallon Branch post.
Come, come, Jeffrey - pansies? They’re petunias, originally from South America, but cultivated almost everywhere else.
I think Japan is probably the epicentre of breeding new petunias and the related callibrachoas. One very popular group in the UK, and no doubt in the US, is called Million Bells, and anyone looking at a label in a garden centre will see in small print “Breeding product of Suntory” - so now we know why Japanese whisky is so expensive.
Hah, you have no idea…. the medicine I take to quell the occasional heart arrhythmia that I develop is called “Sunrythm,” by Suntory. Now you know
—Jeffrey