A Friday Hike

Yesterday was one of the best days of the summer.  I went hiking.  Usually there are 3 or 4 of us, but this time only 2 of us could make it.  The other person is a photographer, so we knew before we started out that this would be a photography hike, as opposed to a hike during which we might get a few shots on our point-and-shoots. 

Before we arrived at the trailhead, we stopped at a pull-off where there was a pretty stream. I totally forgot to take my tripod, so I couldn't do any hdr work.  Jane, however, not only remembered her tripod, but she had her infrared camera with her and was concentrating on refreshing her infrared skills.  While she was working, I was trying desperately to photograph something, anything that was interesting but didn't include the sky. 

This was the best I could do.  Too bad there wasn't a cow or something standing on the other side of the fence.

As you can see, this was a short hike, more of a trail--some incline, but not up a mountain.  It was a beautiful walk.

There was a small lake at the end of the trail, and there were a lot of these sweet little flowers.  While Jane was working on her infrared, I decided to try, for the first time ever (I think), the macro setting on my slr.  Now I've used that setting on my point-and-shoot many times, but never on the big boy.  Pretty amazing.  The wind was blowing these flowers around, but I held onto the stem with one hand and shot with the other.  Not too bad, although not critically sharp.

So here's the lake--practically the same scene in horizontal and verticle.  I like them both, but have a very, very slight preference for one of them.  Which do you like better?