The Garden is Alive!!

A local horticulture friend posted that some Witch Hazels he planted in a community garden were flowering. These are Chinese/Japanese varieties that flower in the late winter/early spring, unlike the native species that flowers later.

I looked outside and realized that my Witch Hazel was flowering. Not something I regularly check on as there's still > a foot of snow in the majority of the back garden. I was pleasantly surprised that they were in full bloom and so colourful.

The image is taken with my Macro Ring Light on the end of my 105mm. Although outside at ~5PM, the background looks black because I used High Speed Flash Sync, a small aperture, and 1/320 sec shutter speed; thus this dramatically underexpose the background.