I was there in the South of France When Zelda [Fitzgerald], poor darling, went off her head. She had gone into a flower shop and suddenly, for her, all the flowers had faces. Of course, some flowers, such as pansies, do have faces.    Tallulah Bankhead

I planted a backyard full of sunflowers a couple of summers ago.  They grew like crazy.  I had about twenty different varieties – all colors, shapes, and sizes.  I filled up a 4G memory card in about an hour photographing them.  There were bees everywhere!  Probably hundreds.  They didn’t seem to mind me being there at all though.  I guess they were too intoxicated by all the sunflower-goodness and the warm summer sun made them too lazy to worry about me.

A lot of my favorite images are the ones I’ve taken in familiar surroundings – like my back yard – and not necessarily while on vacation or visiting a scenic place. I’m not sure why this is.  Maybe its because we can relax enough to ‘see’ what we’re looking at and are not rushed to capture every moment on our vacation itinerary.  And it probably helps being alone so there isn’t anyone impatiently waiting for you to set up your shot – hypothetically.

The point is…beauty can be found just about anywhere.  Sometimes it’s right under our noses!

This image was manipulated in Photoshop by adding a filter and a soft blur.