The Clematis is Blooming

For a long time I thought the clematis vine was dead.  During the summer last year it looked kind of sad.  All winter I looked at it and thought about replacing it with morning glories or something like that this year.  

One day when it was warm I ventured down the deck steps to see if I could see signs of life any place in the backyard.

I did noticed something about the vine -- there were little green sprouts on it that looked like leaves.  It was not dead.    More time goes by -- and I start to see buds.  

Jump ahead a few more days; I went out to see how big the buds were now -- and guess what....three were blooming.  I found these on a nice day, nice late-day light -- so I went for the 50mm lens.  I sat on the deck steps until it was too dark taking many photos of the bloom.  The next day I went out with the lensbaby.  I took quite a few photos of the blooms with the macro filters, stacking them at times.  I also used the f/4 aperture ring and also took the ring out and shot wide open.

The photo on the blog today is using the f/4 aperture ring and the 10x macro attachment.  I really like this photo -- I like it in color and in black and white.  It looks more delicate in color and more architectural in black and white.