Among the Greenery

I mentioned in our last post that we spent the good part of a day at Columbia's Riverbanks Botanical Garden and Zoo.  I had great fun looking for images, and anticipated needing some cross between a telephoto lens and a macro, so brought the Canon 100mm macro lens that Melinda got me a few years back.  With the accompanying monopod, I got what I thought were some great images.  Even though Dave Harvey admonishes that real photographers don't take pictures of flowers, I had fun doing it!  All images are with the Canon XSi and macro.  Zoo pictures in a separate post.  I don't know the names of most of these, but I like the results...

We barely got in the gate and I happened to see a prickly pear (in South Carolina?!).  Anyway, this new bud reminded me of someone I recognised - Beaker of the Muppets!

Also near the gate between gardens and zoo was a really pretty set of glass-blown lights.  We didn't see them lit up, of course, but they were pretty enough silhouetted against the greenery of trees.