It has been very rainy here this past week so I must admit I was a “fair weather photographer.â€Â There is even the unusual snow dusting on the hills around the bay area. Although, “get up and get out there” is one of my photographic mantras, I did not follow my own advice.
So Golden Gate Park’s Conservatory of Flowers, where the low land tropics are at 80 degrees, was my chosen destination. There are some wonderful orchids blooming. You cannot use your tripod here so a ring light flash was my choice to obtain the 
desired light for capturing the beauty of the orchid’s delicate details. I find the orchid centers to be most sensual.  I purposefully choose to have one section where the petals part to add drama to the composition. Although I prefer to carry an arsenal of lenses for a DSLR (Canon) I am amazed what you can do with a small $200 Nixon CoolPix when it comes to close up images.
My second shot is some moss growing on the end of a log. Although it was bright sunlight I felt it worked for this image because the deep rotted out portions of the end of the log were in shadow causing those areas to be solid black. I also tried it in defused light but chose this one.