Floriade

Hard to choose what to blip today since I wasted way toooooo long on this concept without really bringing it to justice!

I'm hosting Tiny Tuesday tomorrow and the theme is Iris (TT486). I'd planned to find an iris to post at Floriade today (Canberra's premiere tourist event, a spring flower festival held in September), but although a warm spell in August accelerated the flowers dangerously, this did not apply to the irises.  As luck would have it, I walked the wrong way around the event, eventually finding some blooming irises just as I was about to leave, and long after I had taken a series of daisy macros I planned to rework (unsuccessfully) in homage to the current market trend of iris photography...

I've always been fascinated by irises (eyes) - hence the inspiration for the theme, although they're not easy to photograph. The window to the soul etc. (although an early would-be boyrfriend told me my obsession was indicative of psychological problems - in a dangerously unsuccessful courtship ploy...).

Included as extras - other possible inspirations for the TT themes - including the elusive blooming iris and camera lens as iris (see also this interesting article). Or take on an eye idiom (mud in your eye) or something etymological (raiinbow/messenger).

If you're interested in the flower festival itself, I posted some pics here.

It was a slightly frustrating day since the mask I was wearing for extreme hayfever (hello birch, hello cypress) was fogging up my glasses and impacting on photography, then some weird glitch in my lumix clicked in.  But the weather was beautiful, and it's always awesome indulging in photography without impatient companions.  And, I've really enjoyed editing/posting with Christy Moore blaring in the background.

PS Extras coming later - I thought I had freed some up, but apparently not. - for now, they are at the end of my Flickr Floriade album