Some mornings I head out looking for images without thinking about lenses. Then when I see something interesting, I decide which lens is going to work best. But today I was thinking about all those tripod-mounted telephoto shots I've been doing -- I haven't made a hand-held wide angle shot since 9 August. So I mounted the superwide and went outside without the tripod or the monopod.
I had the Bougainvillea on my mind, because yesterday afternoon I tried to give this one away, without success. Bougainvillea can be very beautiful -- which is why Ruth and I planted half a dozen of them back in 2010 -- but has long, flesh-tearing thorns. I've never mowed the lawn or cleaned along the driveway's borders without shedding blood, sometimes a lot of it. Bougainvillea will put out long branches, very quickly, and when they're hanging over the driveway and I back out with the window down . . . thorns catching a shirtsleeve or forearm won't slow the car, but will hurt like hell.
So this one -- the baddest of the bad boys -- has to go. Prune it, you say. Sure, but in two weeks it's re-armed and ready to defend itself. I've yelled at it. "I planted you, you bastard, and fertilized you and mulched you . . . and this is how you thank me?" It just waves its branches, daring me to approach.
Anyway, I thought the WA would be a good lens for the purple Bougainvillea, and that's what you get today. Plus sky.
And yes, I shed blood to get this shot. Not a lot. But more than none.