So what did everyone think of that shot that Anya took? Pretty awesome, huh?

Well, I manage to take a nice photo now and again too it seems. Today's photo just happened to come on the same trip that the previous one from Anya came from.

We spent a good two and a half hours at Phipps that day. It was the first real trip out with our new macro lens, and we really took advantage of our new toy. We ended up firing off over 120 photos, and ended up with a lot of keepers, and a handful of gems.

Our macro lens is a Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di LD IF Macro 1:1. And if I haven't said this before, it is my favorite lens at this point in time. It is by far the largest and heaviest lens we own, but I rarely go out without it.

It really is a fantastic lens. The price tag is definitely such that it makes is reasonable - I like Canon equipment and all, but this lens ends up being half the cost of the equivalent Canon lens. It comes with a case, a lens hood, and a tripod mount.

Construction of the lens is rock solid, and I've never had it give me the slightest problem. Sometimes the auto-focus takes a little while to seek, but not having used any other macro lenses, it might be normal, and I'm not sure how loud or quiet it is compared to other macro lenses. For a 1:1 macro lens, I think you would be hard pressed not to pick this lens.

Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di SP LD 1:1 Macro, 1/500 sec at f/5.6. ISO 100. No post production. Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh, PA.

Why This Photo: We were wandering outside of Phipps and were taking many photos of the various lilies there. After a number of different angles and shots, I managed this shot with the near perfect reflection.

What Works: Composition and depth of field are spot on. The focus is tack sharp right where it needs to be.

What Doesn't Work: The exposure in the reflection is a bit blown out, producing a large area that is very bright and somewhat distracting. Perhaps with a ND filter to be able to tone down the bottom half of the photo, this would have worked better.

This photo is also printed, framed, and hanging in our house. And I like to look at it and be inspired by my own work. Hopefully this is just one of many photos I'll take that I'll want framed and hanging on my wall.

- Bill